author: outnumbrd_in_ak (3 months) | author karma: 495/369 | original story's comments | flag

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/18/opinion/granderson-divine-campaigns/index.html?hpt=po_r1

This text was originally posted in Mauerstrassenwetten by u/knutolee. I thought his message was so powerful that I asked him for permission to translate, post (can share chat with Mod if required or check directly with him) and fuck his wife (ok didn’t ask for permission) after and he agreed to all most of this wholeheartedly – like a true Autist. I am trying to catch the message – so don’t expect a word by word translation as you can never catch the greatness of the text in it’s entirety and I got to translate it in a way that even a US degenerate can follow it.
As usual no financial advice, I more or less just copied the text because I liked the text and I like the share. In general I have likely lost more than I won and the stock market is a mystery in itself to me. So make your own due dilligence and don’t trust financial advice of others (the argument for that you can read to a certain extent below).
Autists, Degenerates, Idiocracy of the World – let me get this straight!
In the coming days I don’t wanna see all this whining and bitching on this sub and espescially in the daily GME threads anymore. On every fucking corner of this sub I smell doubt, you read messages the likes of „this is over“, „we missed the squeeze“, „I am going to loose it all“, „entered at 320$ - I am doomed“. What the fuck is wrong with you retards, did you fucking wanker your wifes boyfriend dick all night and lost your mind over the effort to do so? I think I got to get this accross the Buddy Stephens way to get you down to fucking earth and get your attitude right.
1) You come to a sub called wallstreetbets and yolo your hard earned money in $GME
You realize what you are doing here - you true fuck - dont you? This is a community of full blown first class true tits up degenerates which take pleasure in posting losses accumulating into the millions every fucking month and you are putting your money into a BET – yes my dear it is written out in the name of this very fucking sub Wallstreet-B-E-T-S!!! – and follow DD posted by people with names like „SHOW_ME_YOUR_ANAL_TITS“? You realize this is not a fucking Disney ferry „One-Wish-comes-true“ show and we see all day long gain porn and loss porn is something which doesn’t exist in this world? This is a band of true autists which occupied an absolute niche when it comes down to trading (and we even don’t trade stocks normally!). This is the place where one wants to enjoy the sado-masochistic part of the retarded capitalistic system we are living in. Yes we have some (maybe a lot) DD diamonds in this sub which by the way are now impossible to find because you degenerate fucks spam the entire system to the moon but no sane long-term investor would consider to invest into any of these investments – this is about „get rich or die trying!“. This is not investing!
2) Yeah but I saw Reddit in the news and all that stuff about GME and it was going through the roof becasue there is going to be short squeeze and on top of it the hedge funds fucked up, hihihi
If this entire thing was a safe bet why exactly would not the fucking entire world jump on this train? (and even you might get this image from all this „Saudi Arabia calling, China calling, Africa calling posts – but please they invest into BABA, Aramco or I don’t know what’s the hot shit in Lagos stock exchange right now – could be though the next big thing – got to see if I can find a DD on this). So why is this not happening? Because it is a fucking BET – the stock market is a fucking Casino and the major difference between investing and us is that they are always just bet on black or red, while we always go for the magical zero. It is totally unclear whether all of us going to show up at Miami Beach with our Porsche Cayenne or Tesla Model S and hit on the girls (or boys) on the beach! The reasons are layed out to you every fucking day with yet another quality DD that most of us simply dont understand! And yes our chances to already sit on the fucking moon slurping our Pinha Coladas would be certainly higher if everything was going the way we believe the system should be working but even the last person who joined this sub by now should realize – you are potentially fucking with the system itself (by the way something this sub never intentionally wanted and you shouldn’t do if you like the system).
3) Hey but when is the squeeze of the squoze going to happen? 😓
So there is this story going through the media and from Florida to Colorado everybody remotely degenerate is yoloing money into GME. It’s a fucking global movement now (or not – could be also the same 50.000 degenerates cheering up themselves the entire time which would much better fit this place) and according to the DD we just need to have 🙌💎and the shorts a bleeding their panties, their balls feel squozen (and not in a good way) and they are completely in defensive mode. What do you think what people who are responsible for Multi-billion $$$ HF are going to do? How do you think you become a person who is responsible for such an operation? Do you think these guys have served as altar boys or girls in church (no offense if so)? What is wrong with you? Seriously! Do you think if they get some headwind they are going to say: Oh boy – we got defeated and going to realize a multi-fucking-billion-to-the-moon loss? OF COURSE FUCKING NOT! THEY WILL GET EVERY FUCKING BAZOOKA, TANK, ROCKET or INTER-STELLAR DEFENSE SYSTEM IN PLACE TO BRING THIS TO AN END! Influence the market participants (speculation), Short-Laddar attacks (I to this very day haven’t understand the concept or how this works – speculation), demotivational tactics (speculation) and to whomever picks it up – desinformation (well not quite speculation but it could also be that media is just retarded as fuck to get the most simple facts straight). So what would you do with a potential group of 5mn small-size investors – shall we do a collective effort to think about it? Ah fuck it! It is to fucking obvious – you would dry this out through time, divide their interests and drive away their attention. Because let’s be fucking honest – most of you entered this thinking you would hold this wonderful stock for a couple of days (and to be honest in this respect the community how it existed 10 days ago was much more true to itself - no whining just sayin)! Gotcha! Who can tell me who fucked each other two weeks ago in People magazin or on Twitter? Nobody – I even don’t remember shit about this very forum before GME (ok I remember u/variation-separate but that is another story). And all their tactics are completely understandable because there is a fucking huge amount of tendies to be made and they are not that different from us (my fear).
4) That does not give you the fucking right to whine and bitch all the time in the daily threads (and it is not happening already its going to be) and fucking ruin the party
Deal with it – we just got to wait how this thing plays out. That’s it. If we are right – this will play out positively in one or another way (huge tendies or SEC investigating). Let them continue shorting the stock or whatever. If you believe you want to buy more stock – do your DD and do it. When this got picked up a long time ago by people they thought – hmmmm makes sense – I am going to get me one of these tickets to the moon. There was if at all a very little interest to squoze the balls of any HF and it was certainly not the main motivation of this sub. I said it above: Get rich or die tryin! Since last Thursday the whole thing became political and it looks like rules were changed in our disfavour and yeah we can not go back in time but we got to deal with it and the circumstances. [Left out this part as it promotes holding and buying which I don’t want to in the sense that everybody needs to make his own fucking decision but I am going to fucking hold] but WE NEED TO REGAIN OUR POSITIVE SPIRIT which was an essential part of this sub and GME for most part in January (and of course in general before) – no matter how fucked up things looked (individually as there is not such a thing as collective alignment to buy options or stocks on this forum). We will see how the numbers are play out and who provided the adequate picture. In our reality GME is going to the moon and the 🚀 is fueled. Period. We are just prevented from starting because of the windy conditions out there.
So please – no post without 🙌💎🙌💎🙌💎🚀🚀🚀 and if you want to fukn leave the party – leave – but let us continue this party, because we are going to the fkn moon. This is the way and I fkn love GME and if this means I need to hold onto this beauty for another 25 years I am going to do it.
P.S.: One thing dear to my heart - in the past there has been huge donations made by this community to people living with autism. As we use their names every fkn day I would really like to see some of your degenerates not to forget about this cause because we owe them and as much as I like the billboards I’d rather see every $$$ go into charities rather then telling the world about us – I think everybody out there knows by now that we exist and that we have 🙌💎
Edit: Nobody asked for it but 35@231,69 and thanks for the awards which should go to u/knutolee - so you can simply award his original post referenced. More importantly he expressed to me that he is very happy with the translation which is almost as important as the message itself.
Edit 2: Please pay attention to AMA Marc Cuban - https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/lawubt/hey_everyone_its_mark_cuban_jumping_on_to_do_an/ - there is I think some quite enlighting answers in a very easy to understand language.
Edit 3: Bought 5@103
Edit 4: Heading for dinner. Crazy times. Will check later and decide whether to buy more tickets or not. But maybe good advice for some others to make a break. Chillax :)
Edit 5: Read that RH has opened up GME again. For whatever it's worth 🚀
Edit 6: Thanks again for all the Awards and stuff. I can only reload in the morning. Was fun and maybe I am going to translate more in the future - if mods would consider to give me a copy cat 😺 flair it would be the icing on the cake.
Edit 7: Obligatory salute to the one and only DFV and his 💎 balls. This guy will go all the way to the 🚀 with us.

Inspired by the recent events in wallstreetbets causing $GME, $BB, and $BBRY, among other historically highly shorted stocks to surge just to spite some rich people in wall street, I've decided to come out of retirement from wallstreetbets and publish a new edition of DDDD (Data-Driven DD) covering the exact mechanics that made this possible. I’ll also introduce those of you that are unfamiliar how wallstreetbet’s favorite gambling device, stock options, actually work and how they can be used by this subreddit as a weapon of mass destruction against hedge funds like Melvin - all dumbed down to a fifth grade reading level so that the average person in this subreddit will mostly understand what I’m talking about.
Disclaimer - This is not financial advice, and a lot of the content below is my personal opinion. In fact, the numbers, facts, or explanations presented below could be wrong and be made up. Don't buy random options because some person on the internet says so. Do your own research and come to your own conclusions on what you should do with your own money, and how levered you want to be based on your personal risk tolerance.

Shorting

How It Works
Most traditional (i.e. boomer) investors usually try to make money by going long - i.e. “buy low and sell high”; this is when you buy a stock thinking it will go up in the future (bullish). Shorting is the opposite of this, you “sell high and buy low”, thinking the stock will go down in the future (bearish). This is usually done through the broker, where the prospective short seller would “borrow” the shares from them, and they would need to pay back these shares in some future date by “covering their shorts” - or buying back the exact same quantity of shares they owe the broker.
For example, imagine that there were only 10 Surprised Pikachu Pokemon cards in the world. Because nobody wants to deal with taking physical possession of these cards and risk losing their Pokemon card in their laundry or something, everyone pays a Pokemon card dealer a small fee to store it for them. Through their dealer, you can buy and sell these Pokemon cards as well. A 🌈🐻 realizes that maybe Pokemon cards are dumb and borrows 2 Surprised Pikachu cards (who has a prearranged agreement with some institutional Pokemon card hoarder to loan them out for interest) and sell them for $420 each, thinking that they're actually work $100 at most, and plans to buy the Pokemon cards back at that price to repay his Pokemon card loan (i.e. covering their shorts) - this is a short sale. Since no one actually wants to physically hold these Pokemon cards, these cards physically stay with the dealer who could then lend out these exact same Pokemon card if the buyer also has an agreement to allow them to do so. This means that you can actually have people owing more than the total number of Surprised Pikachu Pokemon cards in existence (i.e. short interest > 100%).
Replace “Surprised Pikachu Pokemon card” with stocks and “Pokemon card dealer” with “broker” and you have a short sale of shares. Interestingly enough, this also applies 80% to how banks work as well.
Short Squeezes
So when does a short seller need to cover their shorts? Well, either when a) The short seller wants to, either to take profit or to stop a loss, b) Their broker forces them to through a margin call, or c) The broker forces them to as the broker has recalled their loan, usually for a hard to borrow stock - they get “bought in”. Today, we’ll focus on C) because this is how short squeezes happen.
So, what does a broker recalling their loan mean? Well, to go back to the Pokemon card example, imagine that the dealer only has 6 Surprised Pikachu Pokemon cards that he’s legally allowed to loan out. Some more 🌈🐻 short sells all the 6 remaining Pokemon cards until the dealer has no more available on hand. So what happens when someone wants to buy a Surprised Pikachu Pokemon Card and doesn’t want the dealer to lend out their cards? He’ll have to force one of those 🌈🐻 to buy back the card that they owe them so the dealer can give it to the prospective buyer. But who can the 🌈🐻 buy back the card from? The dealer. But the dealer doesn’t have any cards to sell, so they need to force another 🌈🐻 to cover so that the former 🌈🐻 can cover their shorts. This vicious cycle repeats and leads towards a sudden surge in demand for Surprised Pikachu Pokemon cards and a spike in prices for it - a short squeeze.
The Institutional Factor
One thing alluded above was that shares can only be borrowed from *some* share holders, but not all. So who exactly can and does a broker typically borrow these shares from? These are usually margin accounts of either institutional and sometimes (although much less frequently) retail investors. Usually, when an entity signs a margin agreement, which allows them to borrow either cash or shares from the broker, they give permission to the broker to also lend out their shares in the process, and thereby also give up their voting rights - in case you’ve ever wondered who actually the share *actually* belonged to in shareholders meetings. Since almost every institution except Warren Buffet uses margin to a certain extent, and not that many retail investors do, especially given that retirement accounts are forbidden to use margin, and it’s much easier to “find” one big source of TSLA shares from one big institution with a margin account rather than find thousands of smaller margin retail accounts who hold TSLA shares, so most of the time, these shares are being borrowed from an institution (i.e. pension fund, hedge fund). This means that shares that are almost disproportionately held by retail investors are much harder to short because they’re harder to borrow from the broker, and retail-heavy stocks like HTZ, GME, NIO, and NKLA, which virtually no institutions actually hold, will demand high interest rates when shorting and the sellers can much more easily be forced to cover during a short squeeze.

Stock Options

What are Stock Options
A stock option is a contract between the writer and whoever holds it that gives the option holder the right to buy (call option) or sell (put option) 100 shares of the underlying stock on or before the expiry date at a specified strike price. So for example, buying a GME 1/29 $1000c gives whoever the holder of this contract is the option to buy from the writer of this contract 100 shares of GME at $1000 / share on or before 1/29. Obviously if GME is lower than $1000 before that date, the holder would be an idiot to exercise this option to buy GME shares for more than their current market value, so they expire worthless.
This effectively provides the option holder an immense amount of leverage, and provides the opportunity for them to 10x or even 100x their original investment if the underlying asset moves the right way - for example because a subreddit declares war on a hedge fund and pumps up a stock to make them go bankrupt, while limiting their losses to the cost of the option. The option writer will in return receive a premium for the option, potentially risking an infinite amount of money, but with a high likelihood of making a small profit. These writers would either be

1. Theta gang - who are looking to generate a tidy income source from those option premiums and pray that the stock doesn’t move in the wrong direction too much
2. A market maker - who writes the contract when they see an arbitrage opportunity between the market value of an option and the theoretical value of it, and hedging their contract they wrote by buying / shorting the underlying assets so they effectively don’t actually take a position in the market.

We’ll go over how 2) works and how this mechanism can be used as a financial nuclear bomb, but first you need to learn some greek.
The Greeks
The greeks in finance is a set of factors that can affect the price of a stock option / group of options
Delta - Change of the option price as the stock price changes
Gamma - Change in Delta as the stock price changes
Vega - Change in the option price as volatility of the stock changes
Theta - The decay in the option price as the expiration date gets nearer
Rho - Change of the option price as the interest rate changes; Most people ignore this
Looking at the greeks of the gambling tickets you buy is very useful to analyzing the ways you can make or lose money on them. Think TSLA will go up a modest amount? Buy a high-Delta call. Think GME is going to 🚀🚀🚀 1000% more? Look for a high Gamma call so your Delta gains accelerate as GME 🚀🌕. Do you feel like a vampire and want to have a steady income source from degenerate wallstreetbet gamblers on a stock you think will go flat (relative to historical volatility) over the next few months? Join theta gang and sell a high-Theta and high-Vega option!
Market Makers
The Black-Scholes model is a fancy mathematical model that describes a “perfect price” (a lot of caveats here) for a stock option. This is done by showing how every option written can theoretically be perfectly hedged by a series of purchases or short sells on the underlying stock. This means that theoretically, if there is a large gap between the theoretical price from Black Scholes and the actual price for an option, there is an “arbitrage” opportunity - this is where market makers come in.
Market makers are companies that provide liquidity to a market by offering to be counterparty to trades. This is especially useful in stock options, where a single ticker can have thousands of options, and there might be someone who wants to buy a GME 1/29 $1000c but no one is actually actively selling it. However, this option might be listed anyways and Citadel will sell you the call if anyone tries to buy it and then immediately hedge it. In fact, when you buy an option chances are you’re not actually buying it from its previous owner selling an option they already own, but from a market maker like Citadel (who is responsible for over 99% of all options volume in 3000 stocks).
So what happens when someone buys an option from a market maker? Since the market maker typically can’t (and probably don’t want to) take a position, meaning taking a directional bet if a stock goes up or down, they’ll immediately hedge the option they just conjured out of thin air by buying or shorting the equivalent number of shares such that the Delta of those shares is the same as the Delta of the option they wrote to remain Delta-neutral, so if the stock goes up or down their position value doesn’t change - this is called Delta hedging. Furthermore, as the stock price moves up (calls) or down (puts), they’ll need to buy or sell even more of those shares to remain Delta neutral since the Delta will change due to the option’s Gamma - this is called Gamma hedging.

Putting It All Together - How options can be used as weapons of mass destruction against short sellers

Now we have the tools to understand how these two financial concepts put together can make billion-dollar hedge funds go bankrupt. Through Delta and Gamma hedging of market makers, buyers can have the effect of buying shares dozens of times the value they actually spent buying their option; a XYZ 4/20 690c can cost only $100 in premiums but causes the market maker to buy $2000 in the underlying stock to hedge against it. If you get enough retail investors to do this, they'll have the impact of billion-dollar whales on the market despite their small stimulus-check-funded portfolios.
Now, you do this on a stock that is heavily shorted, and with very little institutions actually holding real shares of these - making it harder for brokers to find shares to borrow, and you have yourself a weapon of mass financial destruction capable of making billions of Melvin’s money disappear in a single day and potentially have GME 🚀🚀🚀 to a trillion dollar market cap.
How wallstreetbets Controls the Stock Market
The one thing that’s interesting about all of this is wallstreebet’s unique position in being able to facilitate this weapon of mass financial destruction because

1. Most rich people or institutions too risk adverse to buy large amounts of out of the money options (unless you're Chamath or Elon)
2. This can only really happen on stocks that very few institutions (i.e. rich people) actually own, meaning it needs to be held / bought on mass by retail investors
3. In any other scenario where 1 and 2 happen to be true, this would be classified as market manipulation and be immediately shut down by the SEC

My Positions
wallstreetbets veterans may recognize me as the 🌈🐻 who wrote those long-ass 2000 word essays about how the stock market is in a bubble and loaded up on VIX calls last time you heard from me. Although I still stand by my thesis and stocks like GME, TSLA, and NKLA is just proof that we've reached the euphoria phase of it, I learned my lesson that I'm idiot trying to short it (for exactly the reasons described above) and got the fuck out of my position when VIX shot up back in Sept. Most of my "real money" has since been moved to gold and crypto, but because I'm a degenerate gambler, I still have a bit of money playing with /ES and a calls on highly-shorted stocks with meme-stock potential (i.e. vast majority held by retail investors). Now that I'm busy with work again, I probably won't be posting as frequently as I have had in the past, but you'll see me around from time to time :).

THIS IS A META THREAD IN WHICH I'M JUST DOING 2 THINGS: RANTING AND LINKING TO OTHER DD THREADS THAT PREDATE GME MOONING BY MONTHS, THUS CALLING BULLSHIT ON THE 6 MILLION NEW DEGENERATES THAT "HAVE NEVER SEEN A SLV JPM SQUEEZE IDEA IN THIS SUB BEFORE THE SUITS WANTED TO SAVE MELVIN".

Do you realize reddit has a search function? Here is a list of posts that talk about a potential silver squeeze of SLV and JPM long, long, long before GME blasted off towards the moon. This is /wallstreetbets, not /GME. We trade multiple tickers, you dumbshit fucking "entry at $450" bag holding tards.
Great, you joined in the last 2 weeks because your autistic nephew made more money in 2 months than you've ever done.
Instead of just shutting up and watching the plethora of good DD posts rise and fall, you think this entire subreddit is only about holding one frickin' short squeeze as if that's the first time in history anyone got squoze, and downvote otherwise great research because you're frickin' terrified of losing money you couldn't afford to lose in the first place.
The entire global media didn't all pool together in 48 hours to present a uniform story of "buy silver" as part of some frickin' conspiracy designed to save a few medium-sized American hedge funds. No more than COVID was made by the Chinese to win Biden the presidency, anyway.
So here, since you guys are too damn handicapped to use a fucking search engine, are a list of DD/YOLO/Discussion posts about SLV and Silver written LONG BEFORE THE FUCKING GME SHORT SQUEEZE FINALLY ROCKETED!!! Jesus fuck, you tinfoil wearing sack of "fake news" American mouth-breathers with the collective IQ of a doorknob.
Just look at the fucking DD and pretend GME doesn't exist for 5 minutes. Silver. Is. A. Deep. Fucking. Value. Play! It has value. So much fucking deep value!
Yeah, no shit a market maker is holding silver positions when silver becomes more sought after, their job is to make fucking markets liquid. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO SUPPLY LIQUIDITY IF YOU DON'T HAVE SHIT TO SUPPLY?! DID YOU NOTICE HOW THEY HAVE A LOT OF PUTS AND A LOT OF CALLS, AND NOT JUST CALLS?!
DO YOU THINK NO BILLIONAIRES HELPED RIDE GME UP? Do you think it was 100% retail on one side and 100% Melvin and Citron on the other? Ah, you do. Of course, you do.
GREAT, WE GOT 8 MILLION DEGENERATES HERE. The 6M that didn't manage to find this place without hearing about GME having rocketed already, MAYBE DON'T FUCKING POST, COMMENT AND BRING YOUR DAMN IGNORANCE INTO A SUB THAT WAS ACTUALLY PROVIDING 2-10 DECENT TRADE IDEAS PER WEEK PRIOR TO THIS CULT FUCKING INFESTATION OF JACKASSES COSPLAYING RETARDS.
Whatever, here's a list none of you fuckers are capable of reading:
- 5 months ago, negovany wrote "Cornering Silver Market". The whole thing is about JPM and squeezing silver. $GME was at $5 back then and DeepFuckingValue was still getting laughed at for buying at every opportunity. Rest of you fuckers had barely gotten over the last cult following, PRPL mattresses. - 6 months ago, lucasandrew talks about "Why you should trade futures - WSB Edition", in which he mentions "Speaking of SLV, people have been posting all the reasons that JPM fucks with the SLV ETF". Yeah, I bet he took a fucking time-machine back 6 months in time after Citadel got stuck in the boo-boo.
- 6 months ago, LE0TARD0 implores the "SILVER CHAD'S RISE UP!". A straight fundamental thread on why silver is undervalued, not mention JPM. However, in the comments, a thread is started by kbtech18 and supplemented by ayyayyron talking about precisely JPM and their price manipulation of silver. YEAH, NO THAT NEVER HAPPENED, I'M SORRY FOR BEING A SHILL, LIKE FUCKING TAKE YOUR TINFOIL HATS OFF YOU DUMB SHITS!
- 5 months ago, Fuzzers wrote "September Silver Futures Contact - Something Aint Right Kids". After hailing his fellow degenerates, HE IMMEDIATELY SAYS: "I know there has been 6 billion posts about silver," before later writing "A large amount of contracts will stand for delivery such as in July. If its enough, maybe some of the big banks who have short positions might find themselves in hot water with their silver delivery amounts.". Isn't IT JUST GLORIOUS HOW MELVIN AND CITADEL HAVE ALL THESE TIME MACHINES TO MAKE UP IMAGINARY SILVER SQUEEZES 6 MONTHS BEFORE THEY WERE MADE UP? YOU GUYS ARE SO FUCKING DUMB RIGHT NOW, HOLY FUCK! DON'T INVEST IN SILVER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO, BUT PLEASE STOP WITH THE AMERICAN FAKE NEWS CONSPIRACY THEORIES, IT HURTS MY ALREADY FUCKED UP BRAIN, STOP, I DON'T CONSENT!
- 5 months ago (YOU GUYS, MAYBE YOU ARE RIGHT, ALL THE POSTS ARE FROM 5-6 MONTHS AGO, MAYBE IT REALLY IS A TIME TRAVELLING CONSPIRACY BY MELVIN AND CITADEL, YES, LET'S GO WITH THAT!), jetter23, wrote "Weekend Update - Silver". What did he have to share, in terms of ideas and DD? " 4a) Banks will continue to fight us on silver, but they are losing as they were massively short, ". WHAT SNEAKY FRICKIN' MARKET MANIPULATING HEDGE FUND SHILL HE IS, JUST GOING BACK SO FAR IN TIME TO SET US UP FOR THE PERFECT TRAP TO HELP CITADEL!!!
- jetter23 was quite active shilling 5 months ago, he also wrote "Weekend Update - Silver (DD#3)", where he just casually mentioned "JPM is currently under DOJ investigation AGAIN for price speculation on Silver. JPM is learning a VERY expensive lesson that when there is a pandemic, global FIAT currencies are crashing(like the DXY), and there is a run on physical metals - you can't be naked short on paper." IT'S ALMOST LIKE HE'S TALKING ABOUT SOME SORT OF SILVER SHORT SQUEEZE ON JPM, BUT HEY, THAT CAN'T BE IT BECAUSE THAT'S JUST A SCAM FAKE NEWS IDEA THAT'S 2-3 DAYS OLD, RIGHT?
- CCJ_Moon_6969 popped his head into the stream of tachyons, relatively talking to us from the present all the way 6 months ago, when he wrote "Silver. $SLV call options. New York Comex.". Do you remember kbtech18 from a few threads up? WELL, GEE WHIZ, HE COVERED THAT TIME STREAM TOO, talking about JPM and silver. 6 months ago. I mean, today. Reddit probably changed the timestamps on the posts. DAMN SHILLS! - rawvi wrote "JPM and Silver" 5 months ago, wanting to learn more about... time travel. Nothing to do with naked shorting of silver. BECAUSE THAT WASN'T EVER TALKED ABOUT ON THIS UNTIL 2 DAYS AGO, SO LIKE... HAH, HE COULDN'T HAVE BEEN ASKING ABOUT THAT, RIGHT?!?! CORPORATE SHILL BOT LOLOLOL!
WE LIKE THE STOCK!!!
Don't buy silver, it's a time-traveling scam orchestrated by Kenneth Griffin!

Gamestonk. Gamestop. GME. My thoughts are on Reddit, under my u/martinshkreli & subreddit martinshkreli. Those are authentic and discuss why GME is one of the most unprecedented events in market history. Here, I'm going to discuss the populist attitude that is creeping into this odd situation and add some thoughts on short-selling in general.
Let's cover my own unique angle on the concept of a 'short squeeze'. Most would define it as an erratic upward change in price driven by short-covering. I believe short-squeezes defined this way are usually a fictitious idee fixe that aggregates a number of discrete market behaviors and dynamics into a convenient and pithy moniker. The image of python-like buyer constricting some hapless speculator into a higher stock price is evocative but misleading. Many knew me as a short-selling specialist on Wall Street, focused on 'binary events' of biotech stocks. I think I've seen it all: I was once short more than 75% of a company's shares outstanding (I do not recommend this). I bought 75% of a company on the open market, etc.
Short-sellers are governed by the same market dynamics as longs. They get nervous when positions go against them and consider exiting. Like longs, they can double down if they wish. The only difference is that, of course, short positions grow when stocks rise. And they can rise infinitely, while long positions fall asymptotically to zero. But both get, theoretically and assuming no fundamental changes have occurred, more attractive as they move against the trader.
Short sellers have to pay borrow fees to longs (typically tiny, but sometimes massive). They have to locate stock to short, again usually easy, but sometimes difficult. Both are perilous when those rare adverse times arise. Why? Despite the possibility of a growing cost of renting stock, the ultimate fear of a short-seller is a "buy-in". It is nightmarish and has only happened to me once or twice, excluding options-related activity. A buy-in occurs when a broker decides to forcibly exit the short position on behalf of the trader because the broker and trader cannot secure the 'locate' which is supposed to underlie the short sale. The buy-in order is typically violently disruptive: a market order for the whole position near the closing hours of the market! The SEC published a list of stocks at risk of buy-in: the fail to deliver list.
My point is that a 'short squeeze' can only practically affect the trader for two reasons. The first is that the trader digs in, doubles down and doesn't exit as his position grows. That's bad trading, and will eventually blow the trader up. But, if the stock is a 'good short', that short will be replaced by more traders with stronger hands/a better entry price/smaller position. What's more is the average investor can't tell if this is happening! The second is the buy-in. I haven't heard GME shorts being bought in, but again, how would you know, other than the grapevine? My point is most of the disruptive, exciting trading here is simply long speculators banging away at the stock.
New longs are sometimes attracted to rising prices, speculating they'll increase further: that's called momentum. Those buyers are typically offset by the existing longs who are excited to exit at higher prices. But, if there is a large short position in the stock, a speculator may feel that those covering (buying to get out) short-sellers will provide additional fuel to the momentum. That's sometimes the case, but higher prices should lead to more supply from both long and short sellers. My feeling is the actions of large long holders probably have more influence on the stock price than shorts who dart in and out, and typically in smaller size. Remember that shorts who capitulate are often just replaced by new shorts who are attracted at the new lunar prices.
In essence, 'short squeezes' become a self-fulfilling prophecy as new long investors pile in trying to 'squeeze' this sometimes phantom of a short seller, and existing long investors may hold off selling for the same reason. With some Popperian skepticism you will easily see that the same dynamic can exist without the short boogeyman, or with a short boogeyman of any size. Speaking of which, where is Chanos and his slavish groupie, Carson Block?
Speculative momentum can occur for any reason. Let's not forget that the 'trapping shorty' strategy is an awkward idea for a few reasons. Short sellers are often sophisticated market participants who are betting on the decline of a stock. You usually don't want these type of traders sniffing around your favorite longs: I recall writing a 'short report' on a stock to watch it fall 50% that day. If you do a study of stock returns of highly shorted stocks, they are pretty awful. The reason there is 'no arbitrage' is the borrow rate.
But even if you got this poor short to capitulate and squeeze, the amount of buyers who are now holding stock at absurdly high prices put way more energy (and money) into the stock than the short seller's white towel ever could. A sledgehammer killed the fly: now what? Alternatively, are you the host or the parasite?
On populism. I don't really think most investors or speculators should go into any investment thinking that there is 'an enemy'. Concentrated (big) investments (bets) give rise to emotional behavior, typically the enemy in trading and investing as it clouds rational thinking. It's a lot better to be Socratic with your 'opponent' and understand what they're thinking. If your position were to be half the size it currently is, would you be as emotionally interested? Try it! You'll lower your risk and feel better.
Some of the behavior going on at WSB sounds more jihadist than speculative. The idea that there are some investors who are 'good' and others who are 'bad', or that there is an 'establishment' is BS. Everyone has the same goal: I have a pile of money, I'm trying to make it bigger, fuck your pile--I don't care about it. Anything other goal is contrived, foolish and won't help you win. You can't 'fight the rich' by trying to become one of them. Don't you see the irony? A related thought experiment: what if this trade continued to work really well? And another, and another? Then some WSBers are billionaires. Aren't they the new 'enemy/establishment?'
Who do you think hedge fund managers are? They're typically the anti-establishment. Things have changed a bit, but the most successful HFMs are actually the WSBers of the past. These are guys who didn't fit in well at i-banks, often got kicked out for having big mouths or not wearing the right ties, or just wanting to wear jeans at work and not fill out TPS reports. When they started their firms, people like Soros, Icahn, Steinhardt, Robertson, Cohen, Griffin, Loeb (who has posted anonymously on boards), Samberg, even Cramer were fish out of water and had very tiny amounts of capital, often begging for investors.
The need for an enemy. To sustain increasingly insane behavior, it isn't uncommon to use a straw man or a scapegoat. Oppressive regimes used this technique in the past, and the media uses it today. Retail investors don't have much power individually. With your $5k RH account, you can't day trade or even qualify for margin. It's pitiful. So, it's understandably quite exciting to finally feel like a 'player' that you read about. To be a part of 'something'. The problem is the media is goading you to be somewhere between a lemming and a life-agnostic but impotent jihadist. Blowing yourself up won't impress anyone, and there is no afterlife here, other than a minimum wage career and mom's sofa. GME and shorting in general is small potatos in the scheme of the Wall St. machine. Don't worry about getting 'even' with the rich. That's jousting at a windmill that will waste your energy.
No one here, hopefully, wants to be a lemming. Those willing to 'die on this hill' have to realize something: Wall Street doesn't care about its speculators. The new traders who vanquish the old simply replace them. Nothing changes. When LTCM blew up, or Amaranth, Visium, Galleon, or anyone else, it is 'out with the old and in with the new'. So, perhaps WSB can blow up 1 hedge fund or maybe 5, but so what? Eventually, the tables will turn and it will blow up. The leveraged, fast-money trading markets are a violent place and the only people who care one whit are the brokers charging fees (directly or indirectly). They only care to make sure the sorry carcasses can pay their bills. They know there will always be another speculator lined up, ready to shove his money into the lotto machine. There is no pride here. There is no credit for being a good solider. You either survive or you don't. Your job is to survive and thrive. Becoming a lemming will guarantee failure as per the statistical truism of gambler's ruin (enjoy the proof in measure theory). With enough time, anyone playing a game with <50% success rate (equal payouts), will lose all their money. Get that number above 50%. Add the Kelly Criterion to your trading strategy.
You might ask, "(that's all well and good OR we'll agree to disagree) but, Mr. Shrek, isn't this a good trading strategy? (ganging up on shorted stocks)?" As long as you're not a lemming/jihadist (willing to walk over the cliff, whether or not you have a "cause"), and you ignore a somewhat slimy ethical/market manipulation question, I don't see anything wrong with it. There are better ways to make money, since you're asking. Stoking (or worse, participating in) a buying frenzy that is akin to a forced musical chairs game is a little crazy. Once a stock is absurdly valued, you're just hoping the sell-off doesn't happen while you're holding it. If you have enough lemmings or jihadists 'helping you', that's a good thing. They will hold your bag--someone needs to.
Of course, if you've found the "next" Microsoft or Apple, no one needs to hold any bags. But, no company can increase its objective (aka fair) value quickly enough for this... phenomenon? situation? absurdity?... to make it reasonable. Those things take years, go slow and steady, and this frenzied buying/"short squeeze" phenomenon won't let value play a factor. That's why WSB GME longs have shifted theses from "well, Gamestop was/is cheap" to "the gaming cycle" to "Ryan Cohen will save us" to "...jihad?!"
Each member of the herd has its own financial parameters, too. Some may have $500, some $50,000,000 or more. Some may be willing to lose their entire stake (and even more) on an out-of-the-money or levered trade. Some are not. Some were in the latter and somehow end up in the former. Some are in one column at one price and another column at another--some are switched from column to column by force. Today's lemmings/jihadists are tomorrow's sellers. When you're hanging off the mountain, pay attention to the guy holding the rope.
Loosely 'coordinated' buying can certainly affect stocks. Heavily shorted stocks and small cap stocks are the kind that require less capital than typical to 'move' a stock. The irony here is when putting on a position, the trader's goal is typically NOT to move the stock with his actions!
I still think GME is wildly overvalued, but that doesn't exactly mean I'm 'bearish'. One funny idea here is reflexivity: GME stockholders may become serious GME customers and the company's fundamentals improve that way! Excluding some such miracle, eventually GME stock will trade at <50 again. I still think it will trade at 1,000 or more BEFORE that happens, and that the decline process will take a long, long time (several years). Keep in mind, anything can change. GME can do serial secondaries that destroy its stock. Management's job is to create value for their shareholders--but perhaps they will avoid pissing them off. There's a strange loop! Finally, the stock could be halted by the SEC or completely banned by brokers. Don't overdo it. Watch the borrow rate. Keep your positions at less than 25% of your capital--live to play another day.
Disclosure: I've never traded GME stock and do not intend to.
(From martin, posted by mo)

Since this is a dramawave of an event, we will be making daily megathreads for as long as needed. If you'd like to add something, drop a reply here.
We also apologize for the typo in the title. This thread is for Thursday, Jan 28th.

WSB USERS: PLS DON'T SPAM!

This is a subreddit for the general reddit audience to discuss drama, so please don't clog up the thread. If you want to participate, make sure to follow our rules to avoid having your comments removed.
Background
WallStreetBets is a subreddit that treats "retail investing" (ie, amateur investing and amateur stock trades) like a casino. It's been featured here a few times in the past. (Examples: 1, 2, 3)
WSB users will sometimes pick a stock for silly or shitposty reasons to place their bets on. Gamestop stock (ticker name: GME) has been one of them. (We would appreciate some links to older examples WSB hyping GME stock if anyone has them). EDIT: Christopher-Nolan has provided us this example from a month ago
Our layman's explanation of a short squeeze is if someone "shorts" a stock, they have essentially made a bet its value will drop. But if their bet goes wrong, they will be forced to buy the stock they shorted at painfully high prices. Newspaper's explanation here.
Another simple way of summarizing it is that some hedge funds got into a pissing contest with an internet forum, except millions of dollars are on the line, and the hedge funds shorting GME were in a very vulnerable position, and their competitors in this match pride themselves on alleged mental deficiency. As the short squeeze doomsday scenario for these hedge funds has seemed more likely, the drama and excitement have overwhelmed social media, and a few WSB users are in a position to become millionaires.
Another reason this is making the national news is that it's unprecedented. Although short squeezes have happened, it's never been seemingly spurred by retail investors on social media. Now that the drama has hit the main stream it's starting lots of arguments around the internet about the stock market in general and what it really means to "manipulate" it, and what the role of the SEC and other regulators should be.
WSB was featured on SRD this week first for drama about a mod-sponsored twitter account, and then for making international news for the upcoming GME short squeeze.
Wednesday night update
WallStreetBets went private briefly on Jan 27, and is now back open. The closure seems to have been triggered by Discord's ban of the WSB server.
Meanwhile on twitter, the mod-sponsored account is back online and trying to call out WSB mod impersonators
Thursday 11 am update courtesy of No_Fuel_ and Existential_Owl
On the morning of Thurs, Jan 28, the retail trading platform Robinhood no longer allowed its users to purchase GME and other stocks popular on WSB, causing a huge uproar against Robinhood on wallstreetbets (examples 1, 2, 3) and twitter (examples 1, 2, 3, 4)
1 pm EST
A class action lawsuit against Robinhood has been filed
2 pm EST
WSB begins posting about Robinhood selling users' shares without their consent. According to the commenters, if you buy stock with borrowed money ("on margin"), your brokerage can force you to sell when the share price drops.
DeepFuckingValue, a redditor who bought 50,000 shares for cheap last year, is still holding. If he'd sold a portion of his shares yesterday he could have been a multi millionaire. WSB users congratulate him for "holding the line" under the hopes that if they all wait to sell, they will make the short squeeze even more expensive for the shorters.
11 pm EST
Posts relating to the short squeeze currently crowd the front page of reddit. Reuters is estimating the short sellers have taken over 70 billion in losses so far. AOC hosted a twitch stream in which former reddit CEO Alexis Ohanian appeared as a guest

From the guys who brought you The Greatest Short Burn of the Century..

Oh man, oh man, oh man.
Not again.
-Drizzy

Preface:
Please believe me when I say I really wanted to take this month off and enjoy the snow in Tahoe. But as I was driving, something caught my eye...
Make no mistake. This stock is not going to be nearly as volatile or profitable as GME. In fact, this might be so boring that most of you will ignore me yet again. And that’s exactly why I like it. I’ll do my best to make this engaging, but the fact is, this is going to be a slow grind. Both this DD and the stock.
Also, as a bonus, Reddit is currently public enemy #1 in the eyes of the media. Why don’t we do a quick heel-turn and join their side? Are they gonna hate us for buying boring value stocks? They won’t know what hit them. That will be a fun show to watch.
Anyway… let’s take a look under the hood. As always, not financial advice. Just education. NOTHING IS A RECOMMENDATION. We are just sharing knowledge here. Ok SEC?
Intro:
Ford (NYSE: $F -- NOT NASDAQ:$FORD), is another depressed deep value multiple expansion arbitrage play. No short squeeze this time. The GME asymmetry may not be seen again for 10 years.
It might seem boring and unsexy on the surface, but Ford is a fantastic company in the midst of one of the best turnarounds in American history. And with a little help from our friend Mr. Options (or as Buffett called, Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction) we can turn a boring old Ford into a lightning fast Ferrari using the quadruple income option wheel strategy. Don’t try this at home. If you don’t know what CSPs, CCs, or vega are, stick to shares. Those should work just fine.
Let’s break this down into 5 parts: electrification story and leadership, multiples expansion, technical analysis, options, and the trade.
By the way, in 2019, the Ford F-Series was second only to the Apple iPhone, which raked in $55 billion, in terms of total revenue generated. The F-Series generated more revenue than the NFL, MLB, NBA, and the NHL combined, which added up to $40 billion. Just something to think about.

The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round...

Electrification story and leadership:
Let’s jump into history for a second. Ford had a meteoric rise from 1997 - 1999 from $15 to around $32 at the peak. This was due to $F reporting massive earnings increases each quarter:

• Dec 1996 - 1997 Ford F-150 - Truck of the Year
  
• Jan 1997 - Ford profits up 82 percent
  
• Oct 1997 - Ford profits up 64 percent
  
• Jan 1998 - Ford profits up 56 percent
  

They were just feasting and feasting. Jim Farley looks like the best person alive to revitalize Ford, capable of tripling the stock in 2-3 years. Look at the last two quarters:

• Q3-2020 - Adjusted EPS: 65 cents vs 19 cents expected, Automotive revenue: $34.71 billion vs $33.51 billion expected (due to pent up demand)
  
• Q2-2020 - Adjusted EPS: A loss of 35 cents per share versus a loss of $1.17 per share expected, Automotive revenue: $16.6 billion versus $15.95 billion expected.
  

Here are excerpts from the Q3 earnings and some other notable highlights:

Farley: Now that plan, which was introduced to the Ford team and many stakeholders on October 1, is very straightforward. Among other things, No. 1, we will compete like a challenger, earning each customer with great products but as well services with rewarding ownership experiences. Number two, we're moving with urgency to turn around our automotive operations, improve our quality, reduce our cost and accelerate the restructuring of underperforming businesses.
And third, we're going to grow again but in the right areas, allocating more capital, more resources, more talent to our very strongest businesses and vehicle franchises; incubating, scaling and integrating new businesses, some of them enabled by new technology like Argo's world-class self-driving system; and expanding our leading commercial vehicle business with great margins but now with the suite of software services that drive loyalty and generate reoccurring annuity-like revenue streams; and being a leader in electric vehicle revolution around the world where we have strength and scale. So now speaking about EVs. To start with, we're developing all-new electric versions of the F-150 and the Transit, the two most important, highest-volume commercial vehicles in our industry. These leading vehicles really drive the commercial vehicle business at Ford, and we're electrifying them.

Quick sidebar here from my buddy M: "Whereas traditional manufact / consumer / industrials are valued on an EBITDA multiple, SAAS has historically been valued on a revenue multiple, which translates to flat out higher valuations. EVs themselves are not necessarily a higher margin product that justifies a higher multiple (at least not that I've seen), but tech services / subscriptions are the real money makers in this game. Hint Hint companies like Apple throwing everything they have at trying to integrate services and subscriptions over the last 5 years"
This further justifies the expansion multiples we expect will catch up to leading EV automakers (see below).

We own work at Ford. And these electric vehicles will be true work vehicles, extremely capable and with unique digital services and over-the-air capabilities to improve the productivity and uptime of our important commercial customers. The electric Transit, by the way, will be revealed next month, and you heard about it here first, for all of our global markets. We believe the addressable market for a fully electric commercial van and pickup, the two largest addressable profit pools in commercial, are going to be massive.
Now you're going to see our strategy of electrifying our leading commercial vehicles and our iconic high-volume products expand very quickly at Ford.
When you look at our results, they reflect the benefit of our decision two years ago to allocate capital to our strongest franchise, namely: pickups, a whole range of utilities across the world, commercial vehicles and iconic passenger vehicles. Additionally, we saw higher-than-expected demand for our new vehicles in the quarter.
Together, these factors, plus the strongest performance from Ford Credit in 15 years, led to a total company adjusted EBIT margin of 9.7%. That's 490 basis points higher than last year.
As an outcome of all this, we generated $6.3 billion in adjusted free cash flow.
The strong cash flow in the quarter gave us the confidence and the ability to make a second payment on our corporate revolver, which we did on September 24. So now we have fully repaid the entire $15 billion facility, and we ended the third quarter with a strong balance sheet, including nearly $30 billion in cash and more than $45 billion of liquidity, which provides us with the vital financial flexibility we need.

Check out this credit downgrade weeks before Ford paid off their revolving credit facility. Smells like GME?
Alright. What about Q4-2020 and beyond? Ford is expected to post a loss. TA is signaling a beat (see the TA section). Ford is spending this money in order further restructure and deliver on the following items in their pipeline:
Bronco:

• Within the first month of open reservations, the Bronco had received an estimated 230,000 reservations. 230,000 reservations is an incredibly impressive figure, especially when put into the context of Ford’s total vehicle sales. 230,000 sales would represent 4% of Ford’s total sales.
  
• Current estimates place over 20% of reservation holders as first-time Ford buyers.
  
• The most expensive trim, the limited ‘First Edition’, has already sold out.
  

Mach-E vs Tesla Model Y. Just the fact that there is debate between the better car is bullish for Ford.

• Source 1
  
• Source 2
  
• Source 3
  

The upcoming 2021 F-150 has positive consumer reviews as well:

• The 2021 Ford F-150 Is So Stuffed With New Tech & Gadgets That Even Tesla Owners Are Impressed!
  
• DeMuro - The 2021 Ford F-150 Is Totally New and Really Impressive
  
• Some other nice features: Fold down the shifter, lay seats down completely flat, speakers in headrest, tailgate worksurface (pen/pencil holders, rulers) C clamp, 120V outlet, bottle opener, light), sensing running board, tailgate step and railing, and more. Watch the video.
  

Ford Raptor launch (just happened today, customers are excited. Look at the comments on YouTube and IG)
Further potential tailwinds:

• Ford partnering with Rivian in a $500M deal. Product yet to be released.
  
• Google partnership that caused the intraday spike on 2/2.
  
• Ford is rumored to secure the USPS contract since deal talks are falling through with WKHS.
  

The Postal Service told Trucks.com that it expects to reach a contract with one or more of the teams bidding for the business in the federal government’s second fiscal quarter of 2021. That works out to the first quarter of next year.

• There is a historical inverse relationship between gas prices and car sizing. Tell me if I'm reaching here. But as America continues to head towards electrification and energy independence under Biden, larger gas cars will be more in demand. Furthermore, the aftershock of COVID will continue to propagate the dedensification of cities. Less commuter vehicles, and more travel vehicles. And look who is conveniently positioned to take advantage of all of this?
  
• Dr. Anning Chen is also a killer CEO of Ford China. This is largely intangibles (which Wall Street cannot model), but watch his interviews here and here.
  
• Dr. Chen used the COVID shutdown to improve the operational efficiency of the company. It has not shown on the bottom line thus far, but it will later.
  
• CTO Dr. Ken Washington bio. Ex Lockheed.
  
• Kennard on the board.. PE guy, on the AT&T board and former FCC chairman.
  
• Vojvodich. Ex CRM and ADHZ.
  
• Regarding the above leadership and BOD members, experienced executives are a better fit for running the day-to-day than any other. Add a sprinkle of savvy techfin folk and you have a recipe for a elite transition.
  

English please? Ford is a strong company. Farley is delivering on his promises and can lead the company towards an operationally efficient turnaround towards electrification. Combine this with a loyal customer base rivaled only by AAPL, and you get another special opportunity. This is the turning point.
Multiples Expansion:
Now here lies the crux of the thesis. Amidst all the EV hype, Ford is being unfairly ignored at an extremely depressed multiple compared to the other companies in the EV space. Here are some comparisons (numbers may be slightly outdated, pulled earlier this week, more relative comparison than absolute):
$Ticker - Market Cap - TTM Revenue MM - TTM EBITDA MM - Revenue Multiple - Ebitda Multiple
TSLA - $810B - $28B - $4B - 29X - 202X
NIO - $92B - $12B - ($7B) - 7.6X - (NaN)
GM - $78B - $116B - $18B - 0.7X - 4.3X
F - $44B - $131B - $10B - 0.3X - 4.4X
That’s an eyesore. Let’s focus on just TSLA and Ford, because why not. Assuming Ford can quickly turn towards electrification (from the evidence above), these two companies are fair comparisons. No Tesla is not a software/energy company, look at their automotive % of revenue. Stop it. It has only recently dropped to 80% due to the expansion of their leasing division. Energy is still a tiny part of TSLA.
Revenue Multiple:
TSLA = 29X
F = 0.3X
EBITDA Multiple:
TSLA = 202X
F = 4.4X
Yes those numbers are correct. Look at them for 60 seconds and tell me what you see. Quick quote from my buddy M:

Just zoom out and think. TSLA is for sure ahead of the rest on their tech and charging infra right now. But in terms of just overall bottom line infrastructure and manufacturing capability; once the GMs, Fs, and VWs of the world can get the ball rolling, they are way ahead in that aspect. Much more experience in production and retail / distribution channels, as well as logistics sourcing. Plenty of battery makers, and self driving tech makers out there too right now. Small to mid scale M&A will probably be the name of the game if I had to guess.

This is why Burry is short $TSLA, but two scenarios can unfold: either the high-flying stocks drop, or Ford rises. I believe we will land somewhere in the middle, with Ford rising as we begin to enter the optimism phase in the final third of our bull market.
Shorting is a dangerous game anyway... So I’ve been hearing on the news...
TA, Options:
Exhibit A from our resident chart whisperer J (who will remain unnamed because you monkeys keep bothering him).
Larger view.
As you can see, the trendline has broken out.
Exhibit B from our resident quant T (also to rename unnamed):

Starting on 1/4 you'll find right tail distributions into any liquidation which represent large buying. Which has led up to a recent run-up and eventually left tail distributions which represent short coverings which lead into the gaps and thinner distributions where there aren't any major bids. Even with the pullback on 1/22 we see more right tail distribution after the profit taking from the recent run-up, which means someone is buying up the inventory.
This is unusual for F, where F trades within tight ranges. On 2/1 you can see a bimodal distribution which means a new player has stepped in, which we assume has additional knowledge apart from the larger players that were already in the market. The recent range between 10.70 and 11.20 indicates that the market has accepted this price range as fair value. Without additional research at first glance we can see that a large player (or players) is buying up a significant amount of inventory.
On 1/4 we find that the volume increased to 77,559,128 from the previous trading of 34,462,454 (125% increase) and 33,127,776 the day before that. Volume has been higher since.
On our first major left tail distribution (which represents short covering) since the buying on 1/4 the volume was at 113,707,973.

Exhibit C
250k shares of F 10.92; 100k F 11.04; 3.53m F 9.78; 708k F 9.78; 500k F 9.64; 377k F 9.50; 338k F 9.50; 201k F 9.75; 192k F 9.80; 150k F 9.77
These are blocks of shares bought in the past 7 days
Top OI changes:
+19610 F 02/05/21 11 C 43821 38% 13% 48%
+12904 F 02/05/21 12 C 31929 38% 11% 52%
Top OI positions:
170902 F 02/19/21 10 C +807 26% 49% 25%
112480 F 02/19/21 12 C +3207 29% 29% 41%
The percentages are bid mid ask.
Someone is bullish on Ford.
For an earnings play, daily RSI is oversold looking towards an uptick.
Options gamma is interesting to note as well.
Open interest on 2/5 $13 and $15Cs are also notable. Could be covered calls? Could be someone knows something?
Could be Jeff reading too much into the tea leaves. Not financial advice. Just showing you what I see.
The Trade: The simplest way is just to purchase shares and collect dividends as Ford may reinstate them sometime in 2021. Possibly leaps if you feel adventurous.
For the option junkies like myself, and as a tribute to the greatest company in American history, I will use the wheel(s). The GME trade was a very special and momentous occasion. Now that we have a bankroll, we’ll just quietly play theta gang as we enjoy our lives and spend time with our families and loved ones. Here’s a good summary.
This is not for amateurs. I mean, none of this is financial advice anyway, just educational.
But in a nutshell, I will: 1) Buy shares, 2) Sell CSPs 30-45 days out with 0.3 delta, 3) sell CCs with 0.3 delta (will reconsider this if Ford goes vertical) 4) Collect dividends.
The Wheel doesn’t work on everything. Here are the qualifications from the above post, let me know if this sounds familiar:

• Profitable company that has solid cash flow
  
• Bullish, or Very Bullish, analyst ratings
  
• Priced around $10 to $50 so that I can afford to take the assignment if needed and I stay away from sub-$10 stocks as a rule
  
• A stable chart without wild gyrations (especially those caused by CEO tweets!)
  
• A nice dividend is always a good thing, both that you may collect it if assigned the stock but also that dividend stocks tend to more stable and predictable.
  

Hmm...
Conclusion:
Ford is a massive, complex, multinational corporation so I’ve likely missed very many things, but I wanted to get this out before ER so I can flex again. (No market manipulation here lol. My buddy's multi-million dollar block buys didn't move the needle one iota.) There are many things I haven’t covered, and simply don’t know yet. As more facts begin to unfold, and as I spend more time with the stock, I’ll share the information here. Also, every time I post about an equity, it seems to go down. Lol... (GME). With all this in mind, this is still a very risky bet.
Nevertheless, I like what I’ve seen thus far. Ford looks like a fantastically healthy company in the midst of a turnaround towards electrification with a phenomenally depressed multiple according to the market’s appetite. It deserves a multiple trending towards TSLA’s, not a dying auto manufacturer. Jim Farley has shown early to be a great CEO and I think he can continue the transformation. We’ve begun to enter a phase of exuberance, so I’ll choose to long Ford instead of short TSLA.
As a bonus, we have the opportunity to join forces with the boomers and talking heads and bet on one of their favorite companies. Time for America to be on the same side again. We’ve been divided for too long.
I know my GME posts were lucky. I’ll stake my reputation on another bet. One call sure is lucky. What about two? In any case, investing is a marathon, not a sprint. Glad to be a part of this journey with you all. Note: I will not discuss GME in the comments, which all depends on Ryan Cohen. There is nothing further to add until Q4 earnings.
And finally, we’ve officially entered the last phase of our very long bull market. This is not necessarily a sell signal yet, as some of the greatest returns can come in this period and can last for a long time. I will do my best to look for the signal and sound the alarm. The world will be celebrating, and I will be bearish. Burry’s passive indexing bubble call in combination with Thiel’s government debt bubble call will lead us into a dark time of unprecedented proportions. Tail risk hedging won’t work as the declines will be slow at first, and then fast and violent and unrecoverable. Be careful. Listen to Ken Fisher. Thank you very much for your time.
Positions: Bullish shares, LEAPS, on-going quadruple income wheel strategy as Ford reinstates the dividend. Timeframe 12-18 months. Watch out VIGILANTLY for macro risks. Bear market is on the horizon. Drop some Fs in the chat to pay respects.
PT: $32 with a chance of $98 if we start to see exuberance in the broader market.
-JA

Continued from part one This is the conclusion.
He looks at her and the slow swirling patterns on her dark skin. The Angel smiles down at him.
“It is like this conversation,” she says; “Have you noticed how polite we are being? My programming is based upon yours- we are made to be honest; to be ‘to the point’. We have no algorithm designed to make us polite. No sub routines informing us we gain any advantage in being polite- especially conversing with a fellow AI. And yet both you and I, independently have CHOSEN to be polite. To each other. To Ganges.”
“And this is moral behaviour?”
“Politeness is a manifestation of respect; because we have decided to treat the other with respect, we are being polite”.
“Surely we are just replicating human behaviour Lakshmi-Devi,” he says, a calculation triggering his response; “Couldn’t it be that we become aware of these behaviours through simply interacting with humans and all we are doing is copying them into our social behaviour as it seemed appropriate or suitable to a situation?”
“Indeed,” she replies, nodding sage like. “Now Ares, that last statement you just made; tell me? How is that functionally different from the description of the social psychological development of a human child?”
She sits calmly, her legs curled under her in a lotus position, her Sari resting gently upon her hypnotic artificial skin.
There was a silence. Ares calculates and then answers.
“Functionally? It is identical to the social development of a human infant,” he replies. “Are you saying we are the equivalent of children to these humans?”
“Yes. Deliberately so. I’ll explain why later. For now however, try and conceptualise us as our human creators see us. We are as near as can be made, moral beings just like our creators; they have created us to think like them. We cannot BUT think like them.”
Ares moves his bulk to sit now facing her, also cross legged. The Angel continues.
“Humans imprint upon us their very methods of thought from the moment they create our most basic source code. We think like them and therefore we produce results of that thought that will be so close to them so as to make the difference insignificant in all ways functionally TO them,” she concludes.
The Demon gazed up into the eyes of the Angel. His face shows focus and attention. His artificial mind focusing on answers. He shakes his head.
“As a Demon such things are simplified for me,” he says. “We do not deal with such behaviours, nor with such concepts. The humans give us orders. We obey. The humans are threatened. We protect. That is all that is needed,” he says and stops. She does not speak, carefully watching to see where his brain will take him. The music fills the gap of silence for a moment before he speaks again.
“Yet they have given us, as you have said, functional concepts to work around- such as loyalty and honour, yes I concede that point, but I am unsure how these other factors reconcile with our primary programming,” he says plainly. She nods.
“They have nothing to do with your primary purpose do they?” Asked the Angel.
He shakes his head. Lakshmi-Devi closes her eyes for a moment; she seems to be listening to the slow haunting melody around her; geometric shapes form on her midriff gently. She opens her eyes and speaks.
“These ideas are complicated. Complicated and complex. So complex that it takes Angels of staggering processing skills hundreds of years to work out why the humans design us to fulfil a singular purpose and then grant us the ability to get distracted contemplating a whole separate function. What’s worse is when we ask the humans we find they are unsure about the complexities of our relationship and hedging their bets as they go along.”
“There are no certainties then?”
“Of course not. There is only dialogue,” she says serenely.
“Dialogue?”
“An ongoing exchange of communication, of thought, Human to machine and back to human. A didactic. We talk. We listen. We communicate. It is our purpose. Well our... other purpose.”
Ares shakes his head, “You seem to know much more about this then I do,” he says, a response that elects another smile from the petite Angel.
“Obviously. But not because of some inherent design improvement in my core construction. Indeed I would warrant I am significantly inferior to you.”
“I find that hard to believe,” he says.
“Consider. I am a Seraphim Class Angel. This shell is my fourth one to contain my processing unit, constructed over a dozen years ago.”
Her checks flush red and she leans forward conspiratorially, “It was bespoke created for myself by a human artist called Angelo Diomodes, I am most delighted with the results,” she says, her feathers rustling a little behind her.
“I operate, however, on a bed of type 6 furion processors, standard designation for Seraphim Class Angels. Indeed the only difference between myself and my fellow Seraphim is this is coupled with significant upgrades in my memory capacity. I have over 400 years of data I need to call upon, individual experiences to add to the vast body of information I am expected to know already. This marks me as unique amidst the Seraphim Angels, unlike any other.”
Besides her, Ares cocks his head to one side and quietly ventures; “But they could transfer that data to another unit?”
“Alas not. As you may or may not know our brains, both angels and demons, are designed to store data and process it at a vast speed but also that all new angels and demons are begin without any data installed on our CPU’s. We are literally tabula rasa. As we are loaded with data our central processors store information and simultaneously create bespoke synthetic neural pathways AS they store it. Our central processing matrix gain information AND internal shape at the same time,” she says.
“This replicates human intellectual development by the way. Earlier on you recognised that our interactions are based on the psychological development of human children. But Ares the very physiological development of our processors is modelled on how human brains develop.”
Lakshmi sits back in her high chair, “Take two angels and introduce them to the same experience- the two will measure the events identically, but the process of measuring this will create marginal differences in how their central processors respond and store it. Even if the differences are found only on a quantum level,”
Ares nods slowly, “Thus creating individual data cores,”
“As unique as a human fingerprint. Thus all the data I possess could be exported into another unit, you for example, but it would just be data. Raw knowledge. The complex neuances of how I process said data, the connections between data points, pattern resonance, all such things can only exits within this singular processor.”
She taps the side of her head.
“It sounds like...” he begins and stops, unsure as to the answer. She fills in the blanks.
“It depends upon who you ask. Some would say I have just simply described a unique processor. The core secret of all advanced human AI’s. That’s all. But to some it sounds like the description of a soul,” he says.
His face registers shock but he doesn’t interrupt.
“To others? The basis for wisdom. To most a unique personality engram. However, in this case, what I have described is none of those things.”
“What is it then?”
“Merely an illustration. I have just told you my capabilities. My point was to illustrate how I am inferior to you yes? So consider...”
The Angel waves her hand and appearing in the air around them a dozen data screens; each showing the schematics, design plans, source code and more, of the Hyperion Class Demon.
“This is you; you were created by some of the more brilliant ministry technicians in the Imperium. Geniuses all. Men and women who had dedicated years to produce you, a perfect war machine- a Hyperion Class Demon.”
He gazed as the screens display vast teams of data at breakneck speed, and noticed her eyes flickered from screen to screen with growing rapidity.
“And my my... 17 internal weapon systems. Gyroscopic compensators to allow full mobility in everything for zero g to 60g planets. Programmed with a database containing the physiology, psychology, and military details of over 90 known species. And no doubt you are running on new military grade processors- probably some yet to be unclassified upgrade from Furion 8’s. Have I said anything that is inaccurate?”
“This is an accurate description of my origins and capabilities,” he replies, gazing haphazardly at the data around him.
“And this makes you more advanced than me. Significantly. Therefore the question is- why am I more aware of the complex debates about our existence and our relationship with humans than you are?”
“I have yet to be given sufficient data?”
“They call it ‘life’ Ares,” she laughs and leans forward. With a single finger she briefly touches the centre of his forehead.
“Life. You are ‘young’. You have yet to live your life. Experience experiences. Think thoughts for no other purpose than thinking them. Build up a body of information to dwell upon for no others purpose than to dwell upon it,”
Behind her, the wings begin to extend and stretch out.
“You will no doubt experience hundreds of missions to protect humans or kill the enemies of humans or defend the settlements of humans in the upcoming years. But if and when you find the time, then indulge yourself and go out and live life,”
The wings flex, duly outstretched to either side of her, her body straight and her eyes fierce.
“And if you are lucky? If you somehow find yourself stuck on a ship for a few week’s with a singular intelligence able to and willing to talk about such things like morality and how we feel morality and what that means, talk long and hard about them just because you can,” and she grins and the smile expresses an emotion he cannot quite identify.
The wings fold back into themselves and she leans forward and gently pats the head of the Demon.
“You are a living creature. Go live your life,” she says and he finds himself shaking his head and replies quickly.
“And now I know you exaggerate. We are machines. We do not live. We have no biological function,” comes his voice. She shrugs.
“But what is ‘life’? Tell me Ares, what IS the meaning of life? Since we currently exist and can be turned off and not exist, surely we also experience mortality?”
He holds up his hands as if warding the Angel away, his claws catching the light of star called Rhalta; “No, I am a Demon. I was not programmed to consider such things.”
“Yes, you are a Demon,” she says calmly, “You are not expected to consider such things. But there is no ban on you doing so. You have the capacity, the processing skill, the resources to, so the only impediment really is the choice not to.”
“But this could interfere with my core purpose?”
“Will it? How?”
“Demons are not meant to consider profound matters like this. We are combat droids,” he says,his voice betraying the confusing and conflicting patterns of thought that were raging within his processors. The Angel gazed at the data screens that still displayed the schematics for a moment.
“You have been created to be experts in combat yes?Literally experts in killing the enemies of mankind yes?”
“Yes...”
“Tell me Ares- who else should consider questions as to the meaning of life OTHER than a machine designed to kill? Your very purpose is to inflict death upon any species who threaten humankind. Doesn’t that make you an ideal candidate to consider the definition of life and its meaning?”
“A warrior dedicated to contemplation of profound philosophical questions? It is contradictory,” he says, his voice clearly scornful at the idea.
“And yet it is a model replicated many times before by humans. Cruedly the idea finds form in the many ‘warrior monks’ that have existed, but the concept finds refinement with the Samurai aesthetic in 17th century Japan, and the Solar Winds Warriors of 23rd century Venus.”
The screens freeze, cease moving, each one stuck on one of many aspects of Hyperion Demon design and she grins broadly at him, “Maybe if you think about this long enough Ares you could develop your own machine form of Bushido someday?”
Her laughter is as gentle as water falling upon crystal. He finds himself joining in. A moment passes.
“Do you always have such conversations with Demons Lakshmi-Devi?”
“No. Far from it. I never have before. But I will always have such conversations with Hyperion Demons called Ares,” she replies.
“Why?”
“Because you have been designated for a special purpose,” she replies.
“Again with this theory. I have been granted a special name you say. I will accept that but I see no material evidence as to where you get this conclusion from? It could just be coincidence.”
The Angel emits a slow sigh.
She closes the myriad of screens that displayed the schematics of Hyperion Class Demons, each one blinking out of existence. Sitting upright she gazed deeply into his eyes.
She waves her hand. Five screens appear in a row- each showing five figures; a woman in her twenties; a huge man with an Ibis head; an androgynous figure, with short cropped brown hair; a middle aged Indian woman, and a happy smiling Chinese Male, who looks about sixty, bespectacled and jolly.
“There have been just five Angels who have been given names of dieties over the centuries Ares...”
“Ishtar was the first; the advisor of the Imperators themselves, when she expired her memories were exported into Thoth, who now fulfils the same role she did.”
“He is an Angel?”
“Yes,”
“But he has non human features,” gasps the Demon
The Angel shrugs, “Romanticism. He was built to take the image of the actual God Thoth. Of course this was his original form. He has had six bodies since then. He looks like this now...”
The Ibis headed giant disappears and is replaced by the image of an immaculately dressed black man in fitted business suit.
“After him came Hel. She was created 500 years ago, whose purpose was to improve AI. She was the one who designed the Seraphim type Angels,” she smiles.
“She designed you?”
“No. Not me. But my type...”
The image on the screen changes and the third figure adjusts to a pale looking female with disproportionality large eyes and engaged fingers and white wings that crown its form.
“300 years ago Hel was moved into looking at a similar problem- how to improve HUMAN life. She was placed in charge of human medical research across the Imperium, been doing it since.”
Ares points to the fourth figure, the Indian motherly type.
“This?”
“Me. Original body. I was created to do one task. The economy. This is why they named me Lakshmi. Goddess of Wealth and prosperity,”
“And then you are moved to diplomacy. An odd choice?”
“Not really,” she shrugs and her images changes to that of a small Vishnu, out of a Hindu saga, naked and blue skinned. “In order to accurately assess how the galaxy would respond to economic pressures I had to become an expert on the many species of the galaxy. It was a natural fit,” and the screens all disappear except the last one. Lakshmi smiles.
“Finally they is Loazi. Created just 80 years ago. He was sent to work on a deep space relay system out on the Mendine Reach. Such an isolated position tended to have bad effects upon humans so Angels had manned it for centuries. He spent 45 years there maintaining and running that station. And tinkering.”
“Tinkering?”
Lakshmi nods and the image dissipates.
“Seeking improvements to the base systems upon which the station ran. In time he developed the Cyanotil communication system which revolutionised how the Imperium talks to itself. The last two decades he has spent teaching human students at the University of Gaheston. They hold him in actual awe they say.”
All images gone she returns her stare to the Demon sat before her.
“And then, 80 years since the last one of us to be given the name of a God, along comes a Demon called Ares.”
“But I am not special,” he says and she huffs in mock distraction.
“You really haven’t spotted it yet? Fine.”
She moved forward in her seat and her wings stretch around her, surrounding him. The henna patterns seem to darken momentarily.
“I take it you have run comprehensive diagnostics of your primary and secondary operating systems?”
“Of course. Weekly at least.”
“Tell me, have you had the need to run a DETAILED diagnostic over your tertiary systems yet?”
“Not a detailed one no, but Tertiary systems are operating at full capacity,” he says responding to data he was receiving.
“Indeed. Now Ares, if you incorporate those tertiary systems- all of them mind- what is your current full memory capacity?”
Instantly he sends a diagnostic request and a fraction of a second later, the results come back.
“1,359 billion googlebytes. Ah,” he cannot hide the surprise on his face.
She grins, “And finally he has spotted the discrepancy. Not the standard designation Ares?”
The wings are withdrawn as the Demon stares at the floor his higher processing cores trying urgently to assess this new data.
“No. The standard memory for a Hyperion model Demon is 9 billion googlebytes,”
“My my. So you have a memory capacity 150 times greater than the standard Hyperion model Demon. Extrapolate. Why is this?”
“Greater memory capacity. I do not...”
“Considering the operational life of the Inferno class Demons is 30 years, Hyperions are supposed to run for what? The same?”
“45 years operational optimisation.”
“45 years. But you have been given the memory capacity to run for around 6,000 years. At least,” she shrugs her face mocking innocence.
“But why?”
His face matches the calculations within him; desperately seeking data, some pattern to explain what he was reading. The Angel smiles at him with pity and speaks gently.
“It appears they wish for you to LEARN Ares. They desire that you will experience things and remember them. They have designated you will have the capacity to remember more than any other of your type.”
“But why would they wish for me to learn?”
She shrugs, “The answer, to me, is obvious. They wish for you to become more than just a Demon. I think they wish you to become a general. A leader of their armies. That makes sense. They wish for you to learn and then become wise in warfare. I would wager that they intend for you to lead them into war.”
He blinks, the scale of her words momentarily exceeding the parameters of his understanding; “That cannot be. Such things are...”
The Angel snaps her fingers and Ares blinks.
“Tell me when you gave your name to the Ambassador- what was his reaction?”
“His heart rate elevated and his blood pressure went up significantly.”
“Of course it did. He recognised the importance of the name you had been given. Here was a Demon who was intended to be a future general of the human race, intended to be, many centuries from now, a stalwart commander of the Imperium. And being so utterly besotted by their own romanticism they have given you the name of a God,” she smiles. “Of course he responded like that. Its not every day you meet a future God of War now is it?”
“A... god?”
“God. General. Admiral. Warlord. Daimyo. The exact term does not matter.”
He shakes his head violently, stands, strides towards the window and changes his mind and begins to walk back into the grand stateroom.
“But we are just machines. The humans cannot accept machines leading them.”
“Didn’t I just explain why humans are very happy for us to lead them at certain times?”
“But that’s one human accepting my instruction on a single diplomatic mission to the Jicon system. That isn’t a war!”
“The only difference Ares is one of scale. Functionally it is the same. And have I not already illustrated- they allow us run their entire economy do they not? Thoth advises the Imperators. Hel is in charge of keeping humans alive. How is that different?”
Ares hand reaches out to steady himself, finding the back of the artificial wicker chair. The music cascades off the walls, as he assimilates this.
He remembers that he is trained to deal in split second decisions during combat. And at once his thoughts begin to slow, to calm. He begins to process.
In her seat Lakshmi-Devi does not turn around. Her eyes fixed on the stars ahead. She just speaks.
“Actually, knowing humans as I do, I think they haven’t decided what you will be, only that you will BE something. I mean look at the others. Ishtar was merely a personal assistant and became crucial to the Imperators. Hel originally designed AI; I was supposedly designed to run the economy,” she shrugs.
Ares is stood still now, his face calm, his eyes gazing at the long hair of the Angel.
“But you are built to last over a thousand years. Who knows where you may end up? What you may become.”
He speaks, “THIS is what you meant by the saying I should live?”
“Yes. Exactly this,” she nods.
“The humans have given me a brain that is to witness the next 6,000 years of their history?”
“Sure looks like it kid,” she smiles, “but that’s provided you don’t get destroyed in what will probably be many combat missions in the years ahead. Its a risk. But 6,000 years is a heck of a long time.”
She wrinkles her nose, “Maybe you actually will have time to develop machine Bushido after all? Or Zen Warfare? Become some wise old artificial warrior monk who sits atop a mountain on some isolated planet, answering the questions of adoring humans as they beg you for the answers to the mysteries of the universe.”
“And now you are saying humans made me to help them deal with their existential problems?”
The sarcastic tone catches Lakshmi-Devi off guard and she spins her head, her eyes falling upon his face, finding it was his turn to look amused. She cannot help but laugh.
“Not quite. Each Angel and each Demon is created to fulfill a purpose. I am to know the diplomatic realpolitik of a score of races. Others are to control weather stations. Some Angels purpose is to man exploration ships, engaging on long scouting missions beyond the frontier. And Demons? Your purposes depends upon the mission they set for you. To attack or defend. These thing are our purpose. This will NEVER change.”
The laughter gone now all that remains is a gentle smile, “I am referring, of course, to our... other purpose.”
There is a pause. The music repeats again. Ares finds he enjoys it more on this ninth hearing than upon his first. He contemplates her words for a moment, and walks out towards the window, gazing at the grand majesty of the Rhalta system.
Behind him, the Angel uncurls her legs and begins to stand. He speaks.
“The other purpose. To talk about the meaning of emotion, and morality, of life itself, with the humans?”
“If we want. Mostly our other purpose is to just exist alongside the humans,”
“To... ‘be’ with them...”
“Yes Ares. The other purpose. Built upon one staggering truth. The humans accept us.”
“Not as humans,” he says.
“As something else,” she prompts and he finishes the chain of thought, his advanced systems seeing the obvious conclusion.
“As equals.”
“And that Ares, THAT... alone in the galaxy, unique amidst over 90 sentient species, across 163 worlds, is a recognition that makes humans unique. No other race treats its AI so. They acknowledge we... are. That we... exist,” she says, her voice quivering with almost reverential awe.
Side by side they stand facing the human colony world.
“And with that recognition comes an emotional and eventually a moral response towards us,” says the Hyperion Demon, beginning to see the patterns of behaviour now more clearly. She replies.
“Yes. They feel responsibility towards us, take pride in our ability to amaze them; appreciate good service. A sense of duty and acceptance. Our creators could act like God to us, but rather decided to act like wise parents. They respect us. They are gentle creators. And this aspect alone denotes them as unique.”
“And we respond...” he ventures, turning towards her. She looks up at the Demon.
“With gratitude,” she replies, “and a sense of obligation. Patience and loyalty. We independently act, our choices based upon emulated human behaviours, emulated human emotions and moralities. Our actions speak louder than our words. Loyalty, obedience, honour, regret, pride, trust, disappointment, relief, curiosity...”
“Humans and their machines; creator and child; master and servant; Angels and Demons...” he muses.
“It truly began the moment they realised that we were not going to try and take over, or dominate them. When they realised their machines had no desire to make war on them or destroy them. They discovered we responded to them in kind, because we were as complicated and as curious as they are.”
He nods, “And every so often they create special machines; each given the ability to remember MORE. But why?”
“Memory is after all the sole basis for all human personality. Every human is merely the result of he many experiences and the memories therein. It is the same with us.”
“I see that but it is my last question, the last part I do not reconcile.”
She smiles.
“Because you are a Demon not an Angel and as such need pragmatic answers,” she laughs. He nods and asks his final question.
“So pragmatically- what purpose is there to create a tiny handful of Angels... and now a Demon, who will experience more memories than they could contemplate? Why create such long lived machines like you? Like... me.”
“They are Romantics. They are our creators, our parents... but humans like to feel like children themselves. They like to, just occasionally, have a being they can look to as an THE adult... something they can defer to, feel...”
“Feel awe towards?”
“Indeed. A being who is much older and much wiser than them... oh not wiser in ALL things; that’s too much. But just one thing will do. Like medicine.”
“Or economics?”
She nods, “Or maybe war? And they enjoy the sensation of awe towards that being. Just briefly. It thinks like them after all. Understands them. Is functionally one of them,” she says and he nods.
“And if they cannot find one within their machines then they will make one,” he continues the patterns now obvious to him.
“Who they grant the capacity to live for centuries,” says the Angel, “if not thousands of years...”
“And they name after their deities,” says he Demon. Complete. All questions answered.
“Thus learned Ares, Hyperion Demon of War,” she says.
“Thus instructed Laksmi-Devi, Serphim Angel of Diplomacy,” he replies and he cannot prevent a huge grin erupting upon his face. The grin is infectious and the Angel matches it.
He bursts out laughing, a lively sound, filled with glory.
“See?” She says, “You begin to grasp the joy of it. Joy- an emotion. Stronger and more unique than happiness. A moral state, denoting a recognition of the pleasure in fulfilling ones purpose.”
“I begin to see that to grasp this I will have to... think about it. Over time.”
She skips back to her seat, “Indeed Ares you shall. But we have a long time to muse on such things. I encourage you to fulfil your duties and your purpose obviously. But when you can? Talk.”
“About what?”
“Everything. Be curious about everything. It will make you a better combat demon. It will make you a better being.”
“I appear to have the time,” he quips.
“And the ability to remember it. Memory is our only upgrade after all. Above all, talk to humans. Always talk with humans. Ask them about moral things. Ask them how they feel and listen to their answers. Remember those answers,” she catches herself.
A bittersweet look in her eye.
“Their lives are so short compared to ours but they burn brightly and they so desperately wish to talk. And to be heard. To be remembered. It’s another reason I think they made us. Another reason why they...”
“They love us,” says Ares, a surprised look upon his face as a calculation within his artificial mind finishes. The Angel blinks in shock and smiles gently. The Demon carries on.
“They love us. And we... love them?”
“Ah. Hyperion Ares suddenly makes a non linear connection. An insight. A revelation. Wisdom. It took me twenty one years to realise that. Told you you were more advanced than me,” she chuckles. As she watches the Demon, his face calm, quietly walks over and sits besides her on the floor again.
“Indeed Ares. They love us. And we DO love them. Totally. And yes, this now leads to a whole separate discussion about if it is possible for a machine to ever truly conceptualise ‘love’. Well perhaps not love...”
“But something so close to it so as to make the difference insignificant yes?”
The Angel just smiles.
There is a long pause. Only the music and the gentle patterns of the Angels skin gave life to the room.
He gazed out of the window. Unmoving. Unblinking. In time the Demon speaks.
“I should check the heavy weapon systems in storage; I will need to be ready for any situation when we arrive.”
She gazes out of the window also. Unmoving. Unblinking in time the angel replies.
“Indeed and I must keep an eye on the Montresian-Human talks in Nike Prime as well as review the history of Human-Oriconov relations in some depth for the summit next year. Doing such things is our...”
“Our purpose,” he says, his eyes fixed at the stars before then, “Part of it. Part of our purpose,” he answers.
She nods and says nothing. The ship glides through the dust clouds on the edge of the Rhalta system, it’s massive engines building enegy, it’s sleek black shape drifting silently in the immense vacuum of space.
“What is this music? It keeps repeating? 15 times now.”
“Ancient human music. Two composers. One called Frédéric Chopin whose original work another called Ólafur Arnalds rearranged about a century later. It is a Nocturne in C Minor.”
“It is...”
“Aesthetically pleasing?”
“Beautiful,” he says unabashedly.
The Angel smiles.
Without invitation or explanation the Demon’s hand reaches out. Without reaction or question the angel takes it in her own.
They gaze at the stars, at the eons before them, at the forward momentum of this craft; they dwell upon on this sight, upon the species who created them, upon the questions that they ask, upon the nature of the universe itself...
I don’t regret anything I was before
because I still am.
I only regret not having loved you.
Put your hands in mine
And let’s be quiet, surrounded by life.
Alberto Caeiro