Throwback Blog: Work Feb 11, 2014

Blogger's Note: Throwback blogs are blogs from my past. I start posting past blogs reflecting what I wrote. It's like my "A Second Look" blogs for which I give myself feedback.

Today's throwback blog is titled Work Feb 11, 2014 written on Feb 11, 2014. I thought about my time working at a start-up company. The company sells premium wines, beer, and sake at a discount price online. The company opened two brick and mortar stores in Silicon Valley. The company has been in business since 2008 or 2009. The company is similar to Fry's Electronics and Borders both out of business. Good business model. Bad management. I blog my thoughts years later in bullet format.

*The second store was burglarized. Over $10,000 in total damages and stolen inventory was big for a start-up company. I'm confident insurance covered most of the damages. Management didn't inform the employees any updates afterwards.

*I remember the Fri Jan 31 when the co-owner told the employees to "occupy ourselves" because the city inspected the store. The morning free time I shopped at Trader Joe's to purchase snacks for Super Bowl Sunday. I also visited the local library where I discovered the library sold used books at a city office suite within walking distance from the library.

*I was lucky I didn't work on Super Bowl Sunday because the first store closed. The Seattle Seahawks defeated the Denver Broncos. The second store was opened. It made lots of money.

*The employees hated days when management announced email specials. Most email specials sold out in hours.

*The part-time employee is the first person I met who worked two jobs to support his wife and two children. He worked full-time and worked part-time. Eventually, he quit the company months after I quit because he was hired for a full-time management training job at a hotel. We both agreed management was bad. The last I heard his new full-time job is installing solar panels.

*The last bullet is an update. The first store moved from a busy street to quieter street. My intuition tells me the first store moved because a BevMo store opened blocks away. A yoga studio occupies the first store location. An advantage for the first store's new location is more parking for wine tasting.

The second store was burglarized on Sun Jan 26. The co-owners spent the entire Mon Jan 27 with law enforcement and with their handymen contractors to repair the damages. Total damages and inventory lost were over $10,000.

I changed my breakfast routine on Tue Jan 28. I reduced eating bread 50%. As of the blog entry, I lost two pounds. I eat cereal, one piece of bread, almonds or walnuts, milk, and fruit. The second manager came back to work after his business trip.

One of my co-workers spilled a bottle of wine on Wed Jan 29. It was difficult to clean up the floor. The narrow aisles limited maneuverability and the number of staff assisting. The golden rule is don't drop bottles.

The same co-worker cleared some boxes to open a window inside the enclosed office at the back end of the store. The window was closed since I started working. The breeze felt good. We also had a conversation on death during my lunch hour.

There was an accident on my way home. It was my first evening accident. I was on the road for 40 minutes. The normal time is 25 minutes.

I worked at the second store on Fri Jan 31. I was told two customers told one of my co-workers there were suspicious customers videotaping the store. The customers wrote their car's license plate.

I arrived on time after getting my tires rotated and balanced. Everyone's shift started late because the store was inspected by the city. The co-owner told me and my staff before we entered the building to occupy ourselves and wait for a phone call. I shopped at Trader Joe's for snacks to eat on Super Bowl Sunday. I drove to downtown to visit the library and mail a letter at a drop off mailbox. I purchased used books at the library's used book store.

The store reopened at 12:10pm. There was chaos, misinformation, and confusion. It was crazy. We found out the inventory needed for today's activity was delivered to the first store. We had to wait for someone to deliver the inventory before the activity started. Fortunately, the inventory arrived in time. Everyone was tired at the end of their shifts. I experienced pain throughout my body.

The entire week of Feb 3-7 was busy, busy, and busy. We talked about the Super Bowl when we have a few minutes of break time. I even took two 30 minute lunches. I went to the dentist before my shift on Wed Feb 5. I got gas afterwards. I used the extra time commuting by driving on a city road exiting the freeway early. I discovered a hospital and supermarkets I could shop on my way home.

Thur Feb 6 was the worst day of the week. The owner slammed the entire staff and managers with an email special. She took advantage of a close out from a vendor. She passed along the cost savings on an email special. We sold out within hours. I continued to get slammed making sure all inventory were priced and on the website for both stores. There were hours I didn't check my email. My unread inbox reached the middle 90s.

I started using my laptop bag when I worked at Cisco. No more Microsoft tote bag. I brought my laptop to transport my company's laptop to the second store for my Fri shifts. The laptop bag has more space for my papers. There was no need to bring two bags.

I got my car's alignment checked before my second store shift on Fri Feb 7. It was the easiest day of the week, yet I was still busy. More customers shopped today compared to the previous two Fridays. There was a salesman from a distributor who wanted to sell his products. He couldn't wait for the co-owner. He exited the store after waiting for 20 minutes.

He's the man. I small talked with one of my co-workers on Tue Feb 11. He has a full-time job and a part-time job. The part-time is my company. I call him a man because he's married with two children. Working two jobs tells me he's a devoted husband and father.

Top Ten Plus Four Equals Fourteen Fry's Electronics Moments

Techies who live near a Fry's Electronics store reminisce the good memories and the bad memories. It's inevitable Fry's went out of business officially announced on Wed Feb 24, 2021. The store was the number one source for computer goods and more for techies and non-techies. Fry's sold more than computers, laptops, electronics, printers, phones, software programs, and monitors. The store sold video games, music, movies, TVs, appliances, toys, books, magazines, personal grooming, stationary, light bulbs, batteries, snacks, drinks, and more non-techie goods to satisfy most consumers. Fry's was a one stop store for techies. Bad management and online commerce caused Fry's to shut down.

Fry's posted ads in the local newspaper. Fry's released a seven-page ad every Friday. Loyal customers looked forward to Friday's ads. What's the hardware on sale? What's the video games on sale? What's the DVDs on sale? What's the non techie goods on sale such as stationary, flashlights, food, books, and toys? The trouble signs were clear and present when Fry's stopped the newspaper ads. Fry's was no longer the best buys. Parking lots were full on weekends. No more long lines the next customer looking at the cash registers' green lights or numbered signs for the next open cashier.

A knew a friend who worked in the tech support department wearing the blue lab coats. Most people thought working in the department was the least stressful because they spent more time repairing computers and less time interacting with customers. He said tech support was the most stressful because 99% of the customers were idiots. They didn't know how to operate computers. Tech support taught customers how to operate computers. The technician ran a diagnostic CD every time a customer brought a computer or laptop knowing most of the time the technician already knew how to fix the computer quickly. Fry's policy was all technicians must run a diagnostic CD charging the customer $24.99. Easy money.

Here are the top ten plus four equals fourteen Fry's Electronics moments:

14. Last Fry's Purchase (Jan 2020). I purchased the Arctic Silver Thermal polysynthetic silver compound for my second built desktop PC.

13. 4K TV (Jun 2013). I saw a Sony 4K television for the first time. Sale price was $6,999.99. I purchased a 4K monitor at Black Friday 2018 for $249.99 as a comparison.

12. Last Black Friday Shopping (Nov 2017). I purchased the Logitech Z313 2.1 speakers. Fry's price matched Amazon at $24.99.

11. Non-Fiction Book (Aug 2008). I purchased I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell by Tucker Max. It was my only non-computer book.

10. The Movie Outbreak (Dec 1995). I went Christmas shopping after I took my last final which was Physics 62 Electricity & Magnetism at San Jose State University. I saw the movie on a large screen TV. I watched the second half of the movie in its entirety. I turned around when the credits were shown. There was a large crowd behind me.

9. Celine Dion's Falling Into You CD (Spring 1996). I purchased the classic Celine Dion CD.

8. Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill (Fall 1995). I purchased her first CD.

7. Targus Laptop Cooler (Nov 2006). It still works today. The cooler prolonged my two previous laptops.

6. $3.99 DVDs (Fall 2008). I purchased Mad Max, The Graduate, Mr. Mom, X-Men II, Die Hard, and Revenge Of The Nerds.

5. First USB Memory Stick (Summer Or Fall 1998). I purchased the Soyo Cigar Pro I 128MB for $49.99.

4. Michael Jackson Died (Summer 2009). The entire Fry's store played Michael Jackson music on the store speakers, played his music on the stereos, and showed a Michael Jackson concert on TVs. All customers stopped at any TV when they were nearby.

3. The Orange Box (Oct 2007). Many video game publications declared Valve Corporation releasing five video games in one the best deal in a century. The video games are Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2.

2. My First Desktop PC (Fall 2008). I built my first desktop PC named my Gaming PC. I purchased the hard drive, case, thermal polysynthetic silver compound, DVD+RW, monitor, cooling fans, and RAM.

Honorable mentions: I purchased a Spyder3Pro Monitor Calibration in Jul 2011, a Sony cassette adapter to play mp3s in Mar 2014, and classical music CDs each containing 25 songs for $1.99 each in 1998 and 1999. I ate astronaut ice cream for the first time in Dec 2008. I purchased a 7-UP soda in a collectable 7-UP bottle in Mar 2011.

1. A NES Game (1986). My brother and I purchased Rygar for the Nintendo. We purchased the video game at the original Fry's store in Sunnyvale.

Update On A Past Blog

I remember the movie Major League starring Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, and Corbin Bernsen released in 1989. The movie plot is the new owner of the Cleveland Indians wants the team to tank to move the team outside Cleveland. I wrote a blog on tanking titled Is Tanking The New Way To Succeed? on Oct 16, 2020. A few professional sports teams tank intentionally to receive number one draft picks to rebuild.

A One Of Many Experiences Good Company With Bad Management

I was in my mid 20s when I worked at my second company after graduating from San Jose State University. The second commercial real estate company was better than my first commercial real estate company. The second company ranked in the top three from the late 1990s to early 2000s. 2000 was the only year it ranked number one.

Why was the second commercial real estate company never ranked number one consistently? I thought back. I connected the dots. I should have realized the answer was bad management. I was young. I was stupid. I should have seen the signs when there was a time period many corporate staff leaving the company. I should have searched for another job. The CEO resigned. The CFO wasn't a good long-term temporary CEO. The company never hired a new CEO afterwards during my employment. The HR director was fired. The Vice President of IT was ineffective. He and the IT manager were forced to resign as scapegoats. On the other hand, the brokers were professionals. I experienced zero problems with all brokers.

There are no such thing as bad companies. It's bad management ruining good companies.

Update On A Past Blog

The Reason I'm Never Bored Is People must be corrected. I wrote the blog on Jan 16, 2013 saying people are important in life. On the other hand, what if the people are making you bored. The people are wasting your time. The people don't help you. You might as well take your chances being alone. Time to say good-bye. You're not bored being alone; you're exciting alone. Don't disrespect yourself. You help yourself. You have freedom being alone. There are new circles of friends to be found. Time is the ultimate judge. There is a chance time passes you're back with the friends you said good-bye. The carnival comes and goes. There is a chance if you wait for a while, the carnival comes back.

Past Comic Strips Posted Feb 2021

I photocopied comic strips I read at work or read at home decades ago, or downloaded from the comic strip's website. Here are some of my favorite comic strips I took a picture on my camera. Enjoy!

Credits are noted on the comic strips. Almost all of the comics were a tribute to the late Charles Schulz.

Raymond Mar One Liners 4

Muscle & Fitness July/August 2017 issue interviewed Arnold Schwarzenegger titled "Arnold" by Peter McGough. The interview inspired me to write one liners reflecting me. There is no chronological order. I write anything I thought my mind. Here is my fourth Raymond Mar One Liners. The first was written on Jun 17, 2018. The second was written on Jun 1, 2019. The third was written on Apr 16, 2020.

I camped and backpacked for the first time at Zion National Park in UT in Oct 2015.

I pretended I was a cashier in a store as a child. My imagination was excellent. I used play money, a broken calculator, and a filing draw as the till for the cash register.

2003 was the last year I used a film camera to take pictures.

I purchased a used Nintendo GameCube on eBay. Best eBay purchase as of today. The games included Super Smash Brothers and Mario Kart Double Dash.

The dot-com crash in Mar 2000 wasn't the beginning of the bad year. The bad year feeling was in the air the minute Jan 1, 2000 began. Admit it. The feeling was there. I felt it strongly.

2016 was the fastest year in the 2010 decade.

My sixth grade should have been the first time I learned not to take life for granted. The opposite happened. Everything in life flowed with me. I took all advantages for granted. The big advantages included the school eliminated students taking showers after P.E., the cafeteria dedicated one line for sixth graders only, female classmates talked to me and I talked to them as if we were good friends, I was transferred to a special reading class which gave me "free" homeroom stars because I was exempted from my homeroom reading assignments, and I aced the geography assignments after I performed below average in world history.

I still use my Samsung Galaxy S7 phone. I purchase a new phone when the S7 stops working.

GI JOE, Transformers, and MASK kicked ass.

I remember Carolyn Harper my first friend and first classmate.

I read The Red Badge Of Courage by Stephen Crane and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald in my American Literature class. I re-read the same books decades later as an adult. Boring.

The band I listen to when I eat breakfast is The Beatles.

I encourage everyone to listen at least one podcast.

My first laptop was a HP Omnipro. It was literally a laptop I placed comfortably on my upper legs.

Excel users who know VLOOKUP were considered advanced decades ago. Excel users must know VLOOKUP to be intermediate today.

2007 was truly the last calendar year everything was good. I messed up. I could have lived one of the best years of my life. Everything was bad for me.

I visited Davis for the first time because I helped my sister moved to attend the university.

I miss watching the fireworks in San Francisco on New Year's Eve.

Waking up at 10am unemployed is a bad habit. Break it. You never know one day you get a new job. It can be tomorrow.

Thank you cousin Chris for introducing baseball cards to my brother and I. We wished we collected one year earlier.

At Least You Got Your Health

A common cheer up statement is "At least you got your health." The statement is incomplete. The statement can be misleading. My additional accurate add-ons are physical, mental, emotional, financial, and spiritual. Are you in good physical health? Are you in good mental health? Are you in good emotional health? Are you in good financial health? Are you in good spiritual health? In some cases, answering yes to all five questions cheers up a person. In other cases, one no answer makes a person feels depressed. All five add-ons are important to live a good life. On the other hand, one no answer is compensated with one stronger yes answer to live a good life. The bottom line is be grateful if you answer yes to all five questions.

Shelter In-Place COVID-19 Blog January 2021

California issued shelter in-place orders on Tue Mar 17, 2020. I have been logging the highlights and lowlights. January started fast during the first three weeks. January ended slow during the last two weeks. Capitol insurrection, former President Donald Trump is the first President to be impeached twice, and GameStop short squeeze were the headlines. Inconsistent state government and local government stay-at-home restrictions depending on their pandemic severity.

Fri Jan 1. Almost half of California's total infections occurred in Dec 2020. 1 million people infected out of a total of 2.3 million. 300,000 new infections in Nov 2020. 269,721 new infections in Jul 2020. Santa Clara County 439 record one day deaths reported. Total California deaths is 25,000.

Sun Jan 3. Last day of the 2020 NFL regular season games. I watched a little of the Cowboys vs. Giants, Steelers vs. Browns, Seahawks vs. 49ers, and Washington Football Team vs. Eagles.

Tue Jan 5. The US recorded a record 130,834 hospitalizations in a single day. Total US deaths 357,000. Total US cases 21,000,000. There were talks of administering half doses of the Moderna vaccine.

Thur Jan 7. Shopped at Costco. A typical weekday morning during the pandemic. Fewer customers pre-pandemic.

Fri Jan 8. California's 15% or below ICU by region stay-at-home orders were indefinite.

Sat Jan 9. A friend contracted the COVID-19 virus. He is the first person I personally know having the virus.

Mon Jan 11. 300 days California shelter in-place.

Fri Jan 15. Errands at Safeway, post office, The Home Depot, and gas. A local Safeway installed new self-checkout machines and are socially distance.

2,000,000 COVID-19 deaths worldwide.

Unseasonably warm weather. Temperatures in the 70s.

Mon Jan 18. High wind guests warning began at 10pm.

Tue Jan 19. Los Angeles County is the first county in the US with 1 million cases.

Wed Jan 20. Joe Biden was sworn as the 46th US President.

California 3 million cases total.

Thur Jan 21. First COVID-19 case in the US one year ago. Case located in Washington.

Fri Jan 22. The United Kingdom announced a deadlier COVID-19 strain.

Sun Jan 24. Watched the second half of the NFL Championship games.

Mon Jan 25. California lifted the state's 15% or below ICU by region stay-at-home orders. California went back to the county four color tier which is the Blueprint For A Safer Economy from most restrictive purple, red, orange, to least restrictive yellow.

Tue Jan 26. Biggest rain storm in 2021. Flash flood watch and wind advisories issued. It was an atmospheric river storm.

Wed Jan 27. Ate Korean fried chicken for the first time.

Fri Jan 29. The Bay Area detected the United Kingdom COVID-19 strain and the Brazil COVID-19 strain.

Sat Jan 30. Errands in Mountain View, CA. The freeway entrance was closed. It took triple time to enter the freeway by taking another freeway entrance.

Mark Cuban AMA At Reddit r/wallstreetbest

Dallas Mavericks owner and Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban participated in a Reddit AMA or Ask Me Anything at r/wallstreetbets posted by u/mcuban on Tue Feb 2, 2021. Click Hey everyone, Its Mark Cuban. Jumping on to do an AMA.... so Ask Me Anything to read the forum Q&A. I copy and paste sorted by Q&A (Suggested). Cuban answered 49 questions.

mcuban: Lets Go !

turdled: This is legit. Mark decided to start the AMA earlier.

mcuban: H/T to Spugliese for this question

Hey Mark! Thanks for doing this. What are your thoughts on which services to use? I'm planning on getting g out of RH for obvious reasons, any retail trading companies you'd recommend? I want to support free trade and hit Robinhood in the wallet for what they've done here. Also, any legitimacy to a class action suit against them?

Pick the brokerage with the strongest balance sheet. What ruined it on RH is that they didnt have enough cash to deal with the growth in accounts, margin loans and volatility. The EXACT SAME THING will happen at the next broker if you dont make sure they have a MULTI-TRILLION dollar balance sheet to be able to handle these kind of circumstances

And there will be class action suits. And they will be combined and they will win and you will get a check for less than $10

mcuban: Final thought. First thanks for the great questions. Thanks for changing the game. Thanks for taking on Wall Street. Thanks for making kids around the country if not the world( including my son and daughter). WSB changed the game far more than everyone on this board will ever get credit for.

That said, you will do all this again. You will go after WS and the next time you will be smarter. There was only one thing that messed you all up: RobinHood and the other zero commission brokers that everyone used didnt have enough capital to fund the fight. They let you down in a big way.

When you load back up, fight a broker with TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS in assets on their balance sheet. Someone that can be there when the fight starts and wont blink an eye.

No disruption is easy or happens in a straight line. Stay with it. I am a believer

pinklips_indy: Why is the stock plummeting so much?

mcuban: Supply and Demand, but in this case it literally could be because the source of demand has been crippled . When RH shut it down, then cut it back, lets put aside why, they cut of the greatest source of demand. They created a RobinHood Dive. No RH buyers, means sellers lower their price to find buyers. And they keep on lowering it till they find buyers. Keep the most natural buyers out of the market and the price keeps on FALLING.

Then that drop accelerates because the more the stock falls the more owners who bought on margin get margin calls. When that margin call happens, its brutal. They just take your stock, send you a fuck you note and sell your stock at the market price, no matter how low. They just want to get your cash to pay back the loan.

That then accelerates the selling.

Which then leads to what we are seeing in the market right now with GME in particular

So what to do ?

If you can afford to hold the stock, you hold. I dont own it, but thats what i would do.

Why ? because when RH and the other online brokers open it back up to buyers, then we will see what WSB is really made of. That is when you get to make it all work.

I have no doubt that there are funds and big players that have shorted this stock again thinking they are smarter than everyone on WSB.

I know you are going to hate to hear this, but the lower it goes, the more powerful WSB can be stepping up to buy the stock again. The only question is what broker do you use . Do you stay with RH , who is going to have the same liquidity problems over and over again, or do you as a group find a broker with a far, far, far better balance sheet that wont cut you off and then go ham on Wall Street.

Puddin-669: What are your thoughts on the volume of the last couple of trading days? And Also, what is your view on the practise of Naked shorting/Short Laddering?

mcuban: I actually love to see the companies I own shorted. If its a company I want to own, I know the shorts can be squeezed and if the company does really, really well, then the shorts will have to cover , creating more demand for the stock of the company I own, pushing the stock price up.

Back in the day I used to run a public company. I used to tell anyone and everyone i knew who didnt believe in us to short the stock

As far as naked shorting, thats not really a thing. Yes there can be more shares shorted than there are original float. That is by design. If i borrow a stock from you to short, and when I short it and your buddy buys it, then they can loan it to someone else to short, etc . All of those people who borrowed the stock paid to do so, and they realize that if enough people buy the stock and ask for the shares, they will get called in. So the chain of custody is there. The systems is doing what its designed to do.

So again, the more people shorting the stock in the company i own the better

Where you have to be careful is when the shorts are in a stock because the company is a fraud. If i short stocks, its only in companies i think are fraudulent and ripping off people . I actually produced a money about one element of this, The China Hustle

AChickenCannon: How do you think the SEC will respond to the GME situation? New regulations on retail trading?

mcuban: The SEC is a mess. I wouldnt trust them to do the right thing ever. Its an agency built by and for lawyers to be lawyers and win cases rather than do the right thing

If the SEC gave a shit about ANYONE other than Wall Street you would be able to go there right now and read bright line guidelines about insider trading, shorting, what is a pump and dump, what are the rules for cutting off the purchase of stocks like happened with GME et al

But they wont. They would rather litigate to regulate, which means they love to sue people in order to create new legal precedents.

All you need to know about the SEC and how badly they want to fuck the little guy is that they have the option of using JUDGES THAT WORK FOR THE SEC when they sue you rather than you have the option to have jury of your peers in front of a judge that is independent . Thats how bad the SEC is. If you want fair markets that doesnt benefit Wall Street call your local politician and show them this

CptThailand: Do you have an advice for people who have lost money the last few weeks and how to go on from this?

mcuban: I learned some expensive lessons when i first started trading stocks. It was painful. But i tried to learn what i got right and wrong. Right now, right here. The game is changing. The hard part is ask yourself if what you believed in has actually changed.

BTC HODLers are a great example to follow. Many bought at the highs in 2017 and watched it fall by 2/3 or more. But they held on because they believed in the asset.

The same applies to stocks. When I buy a stock I make sure i know why Im buying it. Then I HODL until till I learn that something has changed. THe price may go up or down, but if i still believe in the logic that made me buy the asset, I dont sell. If something changed that I didnt expect , then I look at selling.

fawkes0226: Would you ever consider opening a brokerage that's truly for the "little guys" like us? (Go Mavs BTW!)

mcuban: The challenge is not opening the brokerage, the hard part is dealing with success. What fucked up RobinHood is that they didnt have enough cash to handle the number of customers they had, their margin loans and the requirements from the DTCC. They have now raised more than $5 billion and that may not be enough. And its not like they are charging anything for their trades.

The question becomes whether or not buyers would pay a commission or even a tip to a broker for doing their trades. Crypto has no problem paying a transaction fee, you may have to do business with a broker that charges you so that you dont get fucked in a RH stop the buy type situation again

Competitive_Help_513: Hey Mark, given the maturation in public cloud computing and its impact on bringing down company startup costs, and the consequent rise in edge computing / distributed computing (ie a lot of compute capacity being built out globally, albeit not in traditional x86 architecture), when do you think we see grid computing (essentially public cloud business model on top of sensor meshes) finally become a thing? Anyone who can offer a "revenue stream on top of your capex" would have an AWS-esque business, no?

mcuban: Its starting to happen now. From mesh networks connected to traffic signals to much much more. Im an investor in a company called Mesh-Tek. they are putting their tech everywhere

as far as productizing , yes. anytime you can turn what you do inside of your company into a product you sell to the outside, that is something worth looking at closely

bigupsyaheard: What do you think could possibly change in the market after all of this is over? Any new regulations on your mind?

mcuban: What has happened the past few weeks with WSB has all happened before, it was just the big guys doing the battling. The only new thing was WSB traders took them on .

Volkswagen was the short squeeze that was even crazier at the time. Ackmen vs Icahn on Herbalife was similar to this, but it was big money vs big money

Momentum and technical trading have been going on forever, which really is what is happening now broken down into charts and graphs.

What i love about this now, is that if you pick your spots right and work as a group, you can hit again and again

men-swear: What single piece of advice do you have for us to succeed in shaking this up? Keen the language simple for *ape* friends

mcuban: Patience. Disruption is never easy or straight line. Is what you believe in still true. If it is, stay with it. If it's not, figure out what changed, learn from it and reload for the next asset . As always DO THE WORK. Assets including stocks move for a lot of different reasons. Trading stocks isnt easy. Trading Crypto, NFT, whatever, isnt easy. None of this shit is easy. You know what it is ? Its time consuming and brain consuming. And when you learn share. If you want to beat old school Wall Street you have to share that knowledge and find the power in numbers

DragLox: With this kind of volatility in the market, had WSB forever changed the way things will be done on Wall Street?

mcuban: Yes. WSB leveraged the value of community. They took it to the people and made it bottom up. There is so much power and upside in this. Sometimes its expensive to learn. Anyone who has traded for a while has learned an expensive lesson they couldnt afford. I know i have.

next time WSB will be smarter. And next time can still be around GME, AMC, etc.

There will be a point in the stock where wall street starts saying "I told you so", let that happen for a few weeks.

Then hit them again, at a broker with the financial strength to never have to shut you off

JazinAdamz: What do you think about the media. Lying about what Reddit wsb is talking and excited about. For me it showed that the world is evil and everyone is bought. I still trusted some media but u really can't trust any of it. Anyway , my question is do you think the Robinhood class action lawsuit has a chance?

mcuban: Its not about being evil. Its about being lazy. They write stories. They dont do much research. So you get stupid shit being stated about things they really dont understand

fjposter22: Is it in the realm of possibility that these hedge funds just, don't cover their shorts at all? They go full felon and act like it never happened, ala "Fake News!"?

mcuban: Their goal is to never cover their short. But that would take the company going out of business or being delisted. That wont happen here.

Best thing you can do is hold on to the stock and do business with GameStop. If everyone goes to their website and buys from them that is going to help the company which will help the stock which will help everyone here.

If you still believe in the reason you bought the stock, and that hasnt changed, why sell ?

ShitpostSundae: Hey Mark, loved your interviews with barstool, your work on shark tank, and your thoughts on rolling out direct payments during the pandemic. Any chance you want to be a board member of GameStop? Thanks, I'll hang up and listen.

mcuban: Im a fan of stimulus payments. I think the best investment our government can make is in the American people ., At 1pct interest rates, we can get a great return .

And GME already has an amazing board. Ryan Cohen brought in some of his peers from Chewy.com. He didnt put in his money to throw it away

Slimey_Cat_Logs: I lost 15k in BlackBerry and that shit is tanking hard. Do you believe it will rise in the future or am I holding on to a dead stock.

mcuban: i have no idea. No one really does. I do think that once RH and others open up buying some of these will pop up. I just dont know how much or if it will happen for sure.

I think the stocks are getting shorted because the shorts know that the natural buyers , the folks on RH and others like it are being prevented from buying, so that will make it most likely the stock will go down

People dont realize how shorts jumped in when they saw the buy side shut off

Jaykalia: Stepping away from gme for a min,

What are your thoughts on the stock market this year? I see the almost-unjustifiable prices of the many "popular" companies, and it makes it hard to keep money in the market or expand my portfolio. Any advice?

mcuban: interest rates change all valuations. What is right or wrong is hard to determine. What is the right valuation , that is what the market is supposed to tell you. Stocks that dont pay dividends are only worth what someone will pay for them

V3yhron: Hey Mark, thanks for doing this. Do you think the future of exchanges are decentralized direct peer-to-peer networks to eliminate the kind of nonsense we saw this past week?

Also, do you view the ball dropping of Robinhood as an indicator that there is room for disruption in a retail trading platform? Perhaps one intermingling brokerage platform and democratized discussions?

Thanks!

mcuban: I think block chain is the future, i dont know if its decentralized or private

DepressedBard: Mark, what do you make of the blatant market manipulation and short ladder attacks occurring right this very minute by the Hedge Funds?

mcuban: i dont think its manipulation. I think the rules are set to benefit them and they have years of experience exploiting those rules.

Your congress people can change the rules to make them fairer for small investors. They havent given a shit up till now. Maybe people on this board can change their minds

Golfer0808: Hey Mark, this all started because the short interest was around 140%. We are seeing today GME has dipped considerably because it is being reported that the short interest has dipped to 50% or lower. However, the volume numbers haven't spiked to suggest the shorts are covering their positions. What's going on? Is this fake news?

mcuban: The amount of volume to cover the shorts was tiny compared to the amount of volume in the stock on a daily basis.

Lawlshark: Hey Mark, long story short. To continue on this disruption path do you believe that the more that HOLD THE LINE will directly impact the price of certain stocks in the market?

Power to the little guys. *Not financial advice*

mcuban: yes. definitely. HODLing worked in CRYPTO. But it will take some Whales to act as a foundation

romax1989: What industry that is relatively small now has potential to explode in the next 10 years?

mcuban: De-Fi, NFT, but there will be a lot of ups and downs along the way

AI will change everything, but 99pct of the businesses out there that say they use AI are full of shit.

Precision Medicine, Nano Technology, the MRNA technology used in the vaccines will grow.

Robotics. Green Tech, all will grown

Sapandco: Hey Mark,

Thanks for doing this AMA. Do you have any favorite tools to use when doing company research that are accessible to small retail investors?

mcuban: SEC.GOV and Yahoo Finance and basic google searches are really all the work I do on a company. But i dont trade a lot any more. Being a day trader means being online ALL DAY

0MNIBU5: Hey Mark, do you think anything will come out of this from wallstreets side? Do you think they're going to change their fundamental strategies and habits when shorting? Or is this just going to continue and they're going to go unregulated?

mcuban: They will be on the message boards monitoring activity, thats for damn sure

fanelectric: Hello, first want to say I'm a big Luka fan, and still love for porzingus ( NYK fan here )

2nd, Do you think we can file a lawsuit against brokerages like Robinhood ETC ?

mcuban: Yes. There will be class action suits. And you will win. And after legal feeds you will get your $4.00 settlement check

Simplyme__: Hi Mark! I love you on Shark Tank! My question is what advice to you have for people following their dreams and starting from the beginning again? Thanks so much! :-)

mcuban: First, find a job to pay your bills. Got to take care of the basics. Then get back after it. Just remember, its not in the dreaming, its in the doing

WyooterHooter: What potential does wsb/social media investors have going forward? What steps can we take to organize and act as the world's largest hedge fund or something similar?

mcuban: being on this board is big. I think social investors have an opportunity to change stocks the way social was used to build crypto

uns0licited_advice: When you meet an entrepreneur, what are some characteristics in the person that make you believe he/she will succeed? What characteristics do you see in those who don't succeed?

mcuban: Love to Learn

Love to Sell

Be Nice

Bust your ass

Reduce the Stress of people around you

StefonDiggsHS: Mark don't hide I've seen your jumpshot, I've seen you splash corner 3's when you gonna suit up for the mavs to end this cursed losing streak? :(

P.s. been a MFFL and one of my happiest moments is the 2011 finals. Can't wait to cop tickets as soon as I'm vaccinated or it's safe!

mcuban: Hang in there. We will be good.

robertito42: Does the undercapitalization of brokers and collateral requirements of the DTCC make a case for a chain made of blocks?

mcuban: Yes. Stocks will be on the block chain in the future, and that will make the markets much more efficient, transparent and available to the small investor

blow_zephyr: Is it true that you were told to stop investing in everyone who came on shark tank because you were making the other sharks look bad?

mcuban: Its true i make them look bad. But its also true i wouldnt care what they said

Watch us friday nights on ABC ! (Im always selling)

lordeqai: Bro what's the best price to sell at? What price will this go up to until it stops?

mcuban: I typically dont set price targets on the up side. On the down side, when i was just getting started I would set a stop loss at where my margin call would start. If you can afford to hold a stock that is going down, only sell if the reason you bought the stock has changed

ReadThinkDoMore: Is there a proverbial "deep state" within the hedge fund world? What I mean is are there even shadier figures than the CEOs of hedge funds who give them their marching orders? I think there must be. Any thoughts mark?

mcuban: I dont know. I have met hedgies that are questionable, but i dont really do any business with hedge funds

xeonv2: Hi Mark,

Do you honestly think decentralized finance will be a reality given the possibility of big players pushing it from becoming mainstream?

mcuban: Father time is undefeated. Big Players die and are replaced by the next generation

JonSnerrrrrr: Mr. Cuban, I know that you help people on a rather regular basis. Could you light a fire under the ass of the SEC or would that be sticking your neck out too far?

mcuban: Google my name and the SEC

Erchez: Mark - thanks for jumping in here, what are your thoughts about all the hate from billionaires and VC against the "retail bros"?

mcuban: who cares what they say. Do what you think is right. Always

Jokosmash: Thoughts on employee-led investment rounds?

mcuban: LOVE LOVE LOVE it

I think there should be incentives for companies to give stock to EVERY single employee

scuba787: Can the little guy prevail ?

mcuban: absolutely. This shit aint supposed to be easy and its not. Changing the game is ALWAYS messy

NoahSavedTheAnimals: If you could tell your 20 year old self one thing, what would it be?

mcuban: Drink less, party more. Too many hangovers fucked me up

mark_nguyen45: Hi Mr. Cuban this is off topic but do you think we make the playoffs still this year? Our team on paper looks really good but I can see how covid really hurt us too. Also MFFL

mcuban: yes

smartaus: In what major ways will this change the future landscape of stocks?

mcuban: strength in numbers is a thing

HoldTheChimichanga: Mark. Why are they blocking me from buying my bananas??

mcuban: You arent part of the bunch . Why else ?

shady_brady69: Do you consider the Mavericks to be the greatest investment you've ever made?

mcuban: No. I bet on myself.

NineHDmg: My friends have paper hands.

What should i tell them?

mcuban: Dont play RPS Blogger's note: RPS means Rock, Paper, Scissors

redditster00: Which alt coins do you like?

mcuban: I own AAVE and Sushi, along with Eth, BTC and LTC

PathOfTHEERighteous: Are the mavs going to win the finals in the next few years?

mcuban: Fuck Yes

patmacog: Would you take becoming the primary owner of the Steelers if it meant selling your ownership of the Mavs?

mcuban: no

madmatthammer: Do you think anyone will go to jail over this?

mcuban: no.

Ishtastic08: What does Dirk smell like?

mcuban: money

TombOfTheRedQueen: Will you run for president in 2024?

mcuban: no

Update On A Past Blog

The Mark Cuban AMA reminded me of a blog I wrote on Dec 22, 2014 titled Tell Me You Games. The blog suggested how people can start a conversation. Also, the blog suggested ideas to start people socializing in a formal setting, a casual setting, or a group of friends who want to play a game talking only. The AMA is like the Write A Question tip. A person is chosen to answer questions from other people. The questions can be asked verbally or written on paper.