Level 6 be careful with trading the stock market/options/futures. If you think that microstock CEO's are greedy and grabbing, wait until the Wall Street Boyz hit you. I did stocks and options for a few years in the late 90's and early noughties. Made 20K in a couple of days just after 911 for a couple of hundred bucks in put options and had a few other successes in trading stocks at the time but the thing about the financial world is...they want it back and they'll usually get it and more!

Eventually I couldn't stand the stress.....losing a fortune by taking a toilet break can easily happen! The thing that really got me out was the way the big options traders could move the goalposts if the value of options went against them.

At around 2000 there was some 'guru'/fraudster who was telling the wealthy that the easiest way to make a lot quickly was to sell a very in-the-money 4-year index put option....index at 700...sell 4-year put 800 and get �10K +4 years time value (�2K). The prediction was that the index would go to 800 maybe even in a matter of months so you could buy back your put option for much less than you sold it for. Easy money! Except it didn't work out that way after 2001.
I took the opposite side of that trade and bought those 4-year mucho-in-the-money 800  puts when it was still a bull market. But when the index dived after 2001, those puts which I had and which I also used to cover some smaller short-dated puts I had written (for the premium) were no longer deemed to be covering so I couldn't do that any more. And the long dated in the money puts I had were not going up in value as the market declined because the time value of 4 years meant that in that time the market could go back up again and so my long-dated puts were now worth less than in the money puts at the next following expiration.

In the meantime the dealers who sold me those puts were trying to get me to sell them off. Because I could no longer use them to collect premium on other short-dated options I wanted to write, they also became pretty useless as a way of producing regular income. At some point I sold them for almost no profit whilst the market dive should have made them worth a lot more....but if the optionsboyz decide that they don't want to lose money then you have to. Had I had the mental courage plus enough valium and held out until expiration in 2004, I would have indeed made around 4X what I paid...but I didn't. At the urging of my wife I stopped all stock market activities in 2003, having given back around �80K. The big guys (with their nano-second executions and servers next to hubs) just love the small 'investors'/speculators and are really practiced at taking your money. The small guy is truly easy prey....so beware!

Thanks for that, the advice is appreciated, I guess the only good thing and different is now in the US there is Robinhood and Webull and in Canada we have a couple of similar apps but they aren't nearly as good but at least you're not waiting on a broker or having to deal with their "advice" which is skewed in favor of the big guys or their own commissions but also more risky for new gamblers. I'm in Canada so no Robinhood or Webull for me.

So much to learn and so far I've only been doing some day and swing trades, I've won and lost some but nothing too special yet either way.  Last week I was tagging stock video files every day getting all caught up and barely looking at the markets but a few people lost big time on $spy, one was during a bathroom break and the other a nap.

You're right about the stress, can't take eyes off the screens, you don't want to either, I wish I had more screens though, only have two but then again many of the high school and college students who are banking are doing it on their phones and in class but I think some of them are just so good it's like second nature for them and they probably developed an interest and started learning around age 12 or 13.

I guess the only thing more stressful would be trading crypto as it trades 24/7 and you can lose it all in seconds like this. Do a YouTube search for Squid game rug pull, literally everything lost in seconds.

I would prefer to stay in stock video is I could make a living at it and maybe swing trade on the side but I went from $150,000/year to living off credit cards in 2021 so this is my only chance now and I'm only able to play with very little so I need to do what you did with those post 911 puts, put down $200 and make that $20k in a couple of days and then go from there. I stayed in stock video way too long, should have bailed in May....that was my fault, this time the market didn't bounce back.

You mentioned the guru/fraudster, so many of those on Twitter pumping stocks or adding to the hype once a stock does run and they all have a "paid" discord or YouTube channel and my first reaction is if they're making so much money trading then why do a paid discord or bother with YouTube?.

it's almost like those people who used to pump stock footage and photography with their "quality stock" as a great way to make money?, why do all the YouTube videos then and not be out filming stock and selling it if there's so much money in it?.

I do follow Zack Morris and a couple of the Atlas trading gang on Twitter more out of amusement but the ones I pay attention to are the ones that don't brag about massive gains or pose with rented Lambos.

I guess what got a lot of people into trading was the epic momentum run that AMC/GME had a year ago, once in a lifetime life changing money for many. I just hope I make it because stock media is done as a way to make a living and now as I type this is looks like more restrictions and unemployment are coming to my province, the premier is in a cabinet meeting right now and I know what means.

Quote from: DavidK on January 02, 2022, 16:51

Quote from: OM on January 02, 2022, 16:30

Level 6 be careful with trading the stock market/options/futures. If you think that microstock CEO's are greedy and grabbing, wait until the Wall Street Boyz hit you. I did stocks and options for a few years in the late 90's and early noughties. Made 20K in a couple of days just after 911 for a couple of hundred bucks in put options and had a few other successes in trading stocks at the time but the thing about the financial world is...they want it back and they'll usually get it and more!

Eventually I couldn't stand the stress.....losing a fortune by taking a toilet break can easily happen! The thing that really got me out was the way the big options traders could move the goalposts if the value of options went against them.

At around 2000 there was some 'guru'/fraudster who was telling the wealthy that the easiest way to make a lot quickly was to sell a very in-the-money 4-year index put option....index at 700...sell 4-year put 800 and get �10K +4 years time value (�2K). The prediction was that the index would go to 800 maybe even in a matter of months so you could buy back your put option for much less than you sold it for. Easy money! Except it didn't work out that way after 2001.
I took the opposite side of that trade and bought those 4-year mucho-in-the-money 800  puts when it was still a bull market. But when the index dived after 2001, those puts which I had and which I also used to cover some smaller short-dated puts I had written (for the premium) were no longer deemed to be covering so I couldn't do that any more. And the long dated in the money puts I had were not going up in value as the market declined because the time value of 4 years meant that in that time the market could go back up again and so my long-dated puts were now worth less than in the money puts at the next following expiration.

In the meantime the dealers who sold me those puts were trying to get me to sell them off. Because I could no longer use them to collect premium on other short-dated options I wanted to write, they also became pretty useless as a way of producing regular income. At some point I sold them for almost no profit whilst the market dive should have made them worth a lot more....but if the optionsboyz decide that they don't want to lose money then you have to. Had I had the mental courage plus enough valium and held out until expiration in 2004, I would have indeed made around 4X what I paid...but I didn't. At the urging of my wife I stopped all stock market activities in 2003, having given back around �80K. The big guys (with their nano-second executions and servers next to hubs) just love the small 'investors'/speculators and are really practiced at taking your money. The small guy is truly easy prey....so beware!

Lol, even the terminology sounds similar to what one might hear walking by the craps table on a busy casino night.

Yes, as it's so often said on Reddit on Wallstreet bets, "Sir, this is a casino"

And you know why they have 0 and 00 on the casino roulette wheels! I'm sure they'd love to have 000 (maybe they do?).
 
My theory about currencies and the need for the Euro...in the beginning you had the dollar and the yen for major currency speculators but with only 2 major currencies exchange commissions were limited....make a third one (Euro) and you've got your 000 on the roulette wheel!LOL.

Quote from: OM on January 03, 2022, 07:10

And you know why they have 0 and 00 on the casino roulette wheels! I'm sure they'd love to have 000 (maybe they do?).
 
My theory about currencies and the need for the Euro...in the beginning you had the dollar and the yen for major currency speculators but with only 2 major currencies exchange commissions were limited....make a third one (Euro) and you've got your 000 on the roulette wheel!LOL.

Any investing has risks, I'll leave that one there. Any gambling has a house edge, there's no way to beat that.

So for your question, I happened to be a casino history buff of some sorts. I collect casino "stuff". Which much like Microstock is a hobby although some have made that into a business? The ones who make money, got in early and are in the business of selling, whether it's guides, supplies or old collections that they have had for 30 years. Advice makes money?


The roulette wheel, a wonderful and amazing math genius product. Originally had one 0 which for people who don't follow and I'm not going to go into loads of probability and math details, is GREEN. You can bet even or odd, red or black, high or low and all kinds of "50-50 bets", 6 numbers, 12, 3, 18... but the green Zero is none of those and is the House Edge. That's 2.70%

American roulette has 0 and 00 (green of course) which makes the house edge 5.26% - no matter what you bet, either wheel, except one worse bet, every possible bet on the roulette table is the same odds. There's no combination that makes the odds different from 5.26% it's math it's science it's irrefutable. So any book that claims to beat the wheel, is a fraud.

Continuing: Yes there have been roulette wheels with an Eagle, which in effect is the triple zero. Any wheel with three green slots, gives the house an even larger edge. 7.69%



Notice, red and black alternate. Even and odd are not alternating, high or low are varied. The numbers are not in any pattern or order. The game was designed to be as random as possible. The version of this game as we know it, was designed by Blaise Pascal a mathematician in the 17th century. Lets here it for longevity and probability. The only modern change I can find is, table limits. The one flaw in the original is, with unlimited funds, someone could just double their bet, indefinitely until they win and therefore break even, at the very worst.

With a table limit, minimum bet and maximum bet limit, you eventually go broke on a losing streak where you can't double up anymore. If the table unit is $1 and you have a limit of $500, you can lose ten bets in a row and you're out. For anyone who's ever played or watched, a streak of 14 in a row, of Red or Black, as an example, is not unheard of and not uncommon.

Someone has said resolutions. I'm not making resolutions, which generally just don't work out and are hard to keep. I'm saying plans, which are open ended an not a commitment to myself or anyone else, as a promise to do something. Unlike a resolution, something might or might not happen.

#6 waste less time on the Microstock Group 

#7 coming from others ideas, take many more photos and actually edit and upload them, instead of just taking them.

#8 always have a camera with me and in my world a phone isn't a camera it's a phone. 

#9 Find my pocket photo idea notebook and start writing down things, again, instead of trying to remember what I thought of, and obviously have forgotten.

Hobby?, I think this was/is a business.  Maybe becoming a hobby now, was a $3500/month minimum business for me.

Item #9, Writing things down, same here, man the stress of this business has an effect on short term memory, something I've really noticed lately.

Having just told Alamy to close my account, I'm now done with microstock, and with so-called "sales" that net me 4 cents. My goal for 2022 is to forget about these crooks, try to do some good photos that people like, and sell a print now and then via POD.

Quote from: stockastic on January 06, 2022, 19:53

Having just told Alamy to close my account, I'm now done with microstock, and with so-called "sales" that net me 4 cents. My goal for 2022 is to forget about these crooks, try to do some good photos that people like, and sell a print now and then via POD.

Sickening feeling but today i photograph all the gear that might be of some value to sell and list it, keeping one lower end camera and that's it.  It's over.  Job search and a big of day trading is now my full time job.  I will leave the content up in case a sale happens but it's over as business.

This is heartbreaking, wishing you all the very best for these new avenues. Hope you still find joy in photography

I had big goals last year, namely to find a job in my current public service vocation in Sydney and to move back to my home city after near 14 years, which I finally achieved this past November. Went on a bit of a blitz with getting new content and uploading now back in Sydney (after a pause for several months). The new year has arrived and while I aim to continue capturing and uploading content, I'm feeling a bit deflated tbh, especially with 2022 starting so slow.. Hoping to see my ports pick up again as this will re-energize my efforts but at this time I don't have a strong sense of any particular focussed goals for 2022.

Upgrade my PC so I can run Black Magic software and speed up my workflow.
Indoor lighting techniques build in more atmosphere into my photos.
Work with more color and create better backdrops.
Cut back on the half-assed attempts and make an effort.


My brother and sis-in-law bought me a ticket for a photography workshop for Christmas - very kind of them :-) Looking forward to it.

Moan - sales have just dried up past week - is this normal for the time of year?

Nov-Dec are two of the strongest months, Jan one of the weakest so that drop can be concerning (talking about volume of sales, of course now with the SS reset income drop is even worse)

Here's my list. None of it is related to microstock which I'm no longer spending time on.

• More photo shoot trips than last year
• Experiment with selling photos as products like phone cases, etc
• Continue evaluating more places to sell photos
• Sell all non essential photography equipment
• Automate sales fulfillment as much as possible