Comrade 86

On 08/04/2024 at 21:16, RadioactiveWaste said:

Some nice charts in this.

I've not looked particularly deeply, but I like the last one as a visual comparison of how consistent the drivers were relatively.

 

On 09/04/2024 at 06:05, Comrade 86 said:

On 09/04/2024 at 14:34, Alph said:

The gypsies must have had it

Sorry @angieram I missed this thread and have stuck the same Tweet in the Ebou and PW threads 🫢

My bad! 

1 hour ago, NottsRam77 said:

But we live in a fiat world for now.

all my debt is in fiat, my mortgage etc so sadly it is the only option but to cash out. 
 

but that said if it solves a real life problem (my mortgage) ill happily do it.

ill then look at my next goal, putting my kids through uni or buying them their first house etc etc etc. by basically shorting the pound by buying bitcoin

The question i ask … lets say i have 500 quid a month spare to pay off my mortgage early 

do i 

a) pay off monthly and make the overpayment, saving on the interest

b) put in a “high interest” saver and make a big overpayment at the end of the term

c) buy and save in bitcoin with a minimum 4 year (one cycle) timeframe

Option c every day 

I'd split between A & B myself. I'm far from risk averse, but I've been caught out with other investments (non-crypto) where I piled too many eggs into one basket (read 'played it like a greedy mug'). Working the cycle though seems to me to be the most sensible play and doing so may allow you to take a healthy whack out and ultimately still HODL a stack, if you believe the 10 year forecasts for BTC. I'm slightly torn on this though as my hunch is that there may still be some decent upside to BTC, as and when traditional markets fully recover. First rule of thumb for me has always been get the mortgage covered and the kids sorted. Everything else comes way behind those two aims, but at the end of the day, it's a very personal choice and only you will know what profile is acceptable given your circumstances and what is not. Being mortgage free though... It's a nice place to be!

7 hours ago, Tamworthram said:

As we have seen, every game is winnable but they could all be lost or drawn.

Well, well!

Suspect either Mousinho or Skubaala will be named the winner this time around, but kudos to PW all the same.

Ebou ought to be a shoe-in for my money, but I seldom get these things right. A thoroughly well deserved nomination, whatever the outcome.

2 minutes ago, CapeTownRams said:

Sorry- probably missed this elsewhere… but is Ward confirmed as being out tonight ?

He's doubtful, but they don't seem to keep the status reports terribly current on DCFC Official, so we may not know for sure until the team is announced at 18.45.

6 minutes ago, CapeTownRams said:

Well…. U r correct occasionally 😂😎

Touché 😂

1 hour ago, CapeTownRams said:

If there’s an advantage it will be late in the game, so if it’s still 0-0 at about 65 mins I expect us to really push on. Even with substitutions they will be susceptible to attacks at pace. For this reason I don’t want to see PW taking CBT or Nat off around that time (unless we are 2-0 up or more of course).

Well here's a first. We're in complete agreement 😂 

Hopefully we crack on early doors though as there'll be some frayed nerves if it's still goalless at the 65 minute mark, not least my own!

25 minutes ago, Stive Pesley said:

I think you've highlighted exactly what I find so paradoxical about BTC. People buy it as a "store of value" but it only holds value in relation to FIAT currency. So you can only realise that value by selling it in exchange for the FIAT currency. Which of course leaves you with a fistful of the thing you claim is rubbish and needs to be replaced by BTC. 

The only real way to make money from BTC is to be a miner, or a broker

 

If you'd bought at £12k 14 months back and sold at £56k you'd probably not be overly stressed though Stive. I don't see fiat as being quite the bête noire that NottsRam does, though I agree with some of the principles he outlines. I'd also argue that 'spendability' (sorry made up word, but you get my drift) will increase as institutional investor holdings grow, though my strategy has always been to trade and play in the cracks and then use any resulting fiat to invest in something with a lower risk profile. The last time I cashed out any significant amoun (alt coins not BTC), I used some of the profits to put a down payment on a flat for the boy and stuck the rest into BTC. I won't get that cash back, so I won't benefit as such, but you can see how others might by adopting the same strategy. The trick is trying to accurately estimate when hold or fold and my thinking on that is not to worry about what you might leave on the table as when the crypto market goes full bearish, it's an overnight thing and that's really the only thing that gives me significant pause for thought. 

35 minutes ago, maxjam said:

Drama last night!

 

Can't see any standing water on the pitch. It's an odd one as I thought it was up to the match officials to decide not the players, or have I got that wrong? Think I read somewhere that Gateshead now have 4 (or maybe 5!) games scheduled over a 10 day period which if true, is actually quite ridiculous. 

51 minutes ago, RamsFan10 said:

I wonder if Smith might slot into right back tonight to allow us to keep a similar system up top.

             Wildsmith 

Smith Nelson Cashin Sibley 

        Tommo Adams 

      Wilson NML CBT

              Collins

If Wilson plays right back and Ward is out, we’ll be forced to go either with two strikers or three central midfielders.

I’m not saying this is what I’d do, but I think PW might go for it. I personally want to see NML back out wide asap. 

 I get you're playing devil's advocate here, but a 2 MF of Thommo and Ebou, with Nate again played through the middle...

16 minutes ago, Alph said:

I can't even begin to imagine what a Palestinian State would look like. Not now. 

The west would demand a hand in who leads it. Palestinians would reject that. They already see the leadership in West Bank as a weak compromised government. The whole point is that Palestinians demand self determination. Would the West also deal with the extremists in Israel (which, despite the media shift, goes further than Netenyahu)? No. "Israel is a democracy". 

If the West allowed the Palestinians the freedom to elect their leadership... we could be talking anything from a power vacuum within Palestine to a leadership emerging that would bring us back to war again. Never going to happen as you can see from the opposition view in Australia 

We are just stuck in the mindset that Israel has the absolute right to defend itself by whatever means, to elect Zionist leaders and that it's up to the Palestinians to somehow wave it's right of self defence (trust that the Int community will defend them) and elect a suitable leadership.

The West says Israel has moral superiority over all the Middle East. It can not be an arbiter of peace from that position. 

Even now, they stand beside Netenyahu. They can't talk about a Palestinian State until they're prepared to tackle the Apartheid and belligerent State. They can't even stop sending weapons never mind apply international pressure.

Apologies for cynical rant. It's just the calls for a Palestinian State are too late or too early. There couldn't be a worse time 

No apology required mate, I think you're just vocalising some of the same concerns many of us share. When you look at the 'tactics' employed by the IDF one might think that the raising of Gaza was done with the specific intention of making any return as challenging as possible. As it is, it's a bloody mess, quite literally.

That said, I'm not sure I share your view about calls for a Palestinian state being poorly timed. For me, it's now or never. Pressure must be brought to bear IMO. Likewise, irrespective of how enormous the task might seem to us, I doubt the Palestinians themselves view it that way, but before any of these notions become salient, we need to see a lasting truce and I concede that this may yet prove a massive hurdle.

On a brighter note, Blighty has at least played a minor role in the purportedly largest aid airdrop to date. Bombing the Yemen one week, aid work the next. Life in the RAF is nothing if not diverse 😑

Reports today that both Ireland and Australia might consider recognising the Palestinian state, as part of a two-state solution. Without a lasting peace, it might be argued that it's not that significant, but will other nations now break ranks too? Biden is coming under increasing pressure to further press Netanyahu for compromise and I now wonder whether an attack on Rafa seem likely at all. One hopes not. Perhaps now the greatest threat to the ceasefire and the possibility of a lasting truce may come from outside entities, which a cynic might say could have been Israel's true motivation all along. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-68758678

https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/martin-says-ireland-will-recognise-palestinian-statehood-1611346.html

6 minutes ago, Stive Pesley said:

Key difference is that those accounts are deliberately secret and the owners never mention them. As opposed to BTC where the HODLers never shut up about how much they are into their crypto 😂

Plenty of ill-gotten gains tied up in Crypto Stive! The anonymity used to be a prime draw and not every investor is a spotty yoof! Sadly that includes yours truly! 😂 

14 minutes ago, Crewton said:

It was more prompted by Ed Dawes on Sportscene last night referring to it erroneously as a "9 day break", but you do seem to be echoing what the presenters were saying.

There's actually been five 1 week breaks since the end of January and two 6 day breaks. After Saturday, there's a week long break between each remaining fixture. This time, it's 8 days. What difference does a day make other than give extra time for players to recover from a hard game at Pompey?

For the last few weeks, the consensus on here has been that other teams' fixture pile-up could be helpful to us. We've all expressed concern that playing Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday was a problem for our older players, but now not playing as many games is a problem?

I don't think many think it's a major problem and I'm certain it's scarcely worth a debate. Seems a bit nitpicky to be honest.

2 minutes ago, DiggerB said:

Some would say once is an error, three times is the lack of a lesson learned!

Some would also say that today is a day to set aside criticism, valid or otherwise, and just get behind the team too!

8 minutes ago, DiggerB said:

Doesn’t sound like they or P’boro overly exerted themselves on Sunday, so expect Wycombe to have had ample recovery for their real cup final tonight.

I watched the game and the first half certainly wasn't played at any real pace, but they players will still have less energy than they would have. We need to play smart and stretch the game, but do so without forcing it. If we move the ball around and guard it well enough, they will tire from the 60 minute mark. Bravado aside, it's a nothing game for them, after all. Their race is run.

1 hour ago, Crewton said:

People keep referring to the period since the Portsmouth game as a "break", but it's only 1 day more than a normal Saturday to Saturday period. The team shouldn't experience any negative effects from this, but should benefit from not having played at the weekend.

From the Christmas period, pretty much to end of season, there aren't too many week long breaks though, are there, save for international duties. You say it's not significant, but would you rather 3 games over 7 days or one. There's arguments for both options IMO and I don't see folk discussing it as being something worth addressing.

I'm not sure about others, but I've alluded to us having not really prospered immediately after international breaks, when it's looked to all intents that with injuries and congested schedules, it should have benefitted us. Richie Barker made the same point this week, that in some ways, we could have done without the break in momentum, having played so well against Portsmouth. Whether is a benefit or a drawback, nobody can say for sure, at least not until 10.00pm tonight.

46 minutes ago, Bob The Badger said:

I know it will be superseded by the next three games if we win, but I feel like this is the biggest game since Frank said 'II know what would be hysterical, let's leave out the guy who scored two goals coming off the bench in the last game'

I'm coming up for Saturday's game, so please win, lads, and set it up nicely.

Every game is a 'cup final' now, irrespective of how clichéd that sounds, at least until the maths decrees we're safe, or not. Tonight does feel like a critical game though, as on form and style of play, Wycombe may present more of a challenge than say Carlisle or Cambridge. Win tonight and it heaps the pressure back on Bolton. For all my moaning though, I'm loving the jeopardy element. To my way of thinking, this is what being a supporter is all about.

10 minutes ago, Stive Pesley said:

Yeah - I meant if people *don't* manage to do that. Given that there are a large amount of young people in the BTC market, I'm guessing there will be a fair chunk of them who won't have given this a second thought. And it's not like probate laws can decrypt wallets

So as NottsRam said - in this instance it's gone. I'm sure I read somewhere that an estimated 20% of BTC are already lost due to death/lost keys

Kind of makes it an unusual "store of wealth" in that respect. At least gold exists and can be inherited. 

 

How is that different to those 'discreet' accounts in Switzerland or Lichtenstein though? No account number, no access, just the same as with crypto. Also, portable wallets are physical items, just fancy pen drives really. Presumably they might be found in the deceased's belongings, as might their stored seed phrases and even encrypted drives can be cracked. I agree the risk is higher with younger folk, but do many younger folk have wills anyway? I also think the 1 in 5 estimate is probably a significant overestimate too.

The difference here, as you point out, is that BTC has made more young people wealthy, so I suppose your point is valid in that regard, given I doubt too many 20 year olds have accrued vast reserves of gold or precious stones, but thousands and thousands of young kids are BTC millionaires. How many other more traditional stores of worth go unclaimed though, despite probate? Plenty I'd wager, if reports of huge amounts lying in dormant accounts hold any truth.

And so matchday is upon us and despite believing we'll win this game, nagging doubts persist. Hard to know which Wycombe we'll face; will they be at their dogged and determined best, or will they be suffering from a Wembley hangover? Equally, the Rams haven't seemed to prosper coming off a break in recent seasons, or perhaps I'm just imagining that. I do think if we are switched on tonight and with the stakes so high you'd hope we would be, then we ought to have too much for them. 

So how do we see the game playing out? I don't see Wycombe flying out of the gates and off the back of a quick turnaround, there might be some heavy legs out there tonight. Their fans will certainly be up for it and I'd expect a decent showing from them even after their Wembley heartbreak and despite it being a mid-week game. They still see Derby as the devil incarnate and have somehow painted their owner's actions as charitable - yes really! - and inevitably, the recent history will almost certainly ensure a feisty game.

No doubt we'll hear more as the day progresses, but it seems likely Ward will be given more time having picked up a knock, but as @sage has pointed out, we might have Max and Barks back in the fold tonight which would give us plenty of options off the bench. With Joe's niggle likely to keep him out, I'd expect us to line up with CBT and Nate on the flanks and I'd hope that the latter will show up well for a return to his favoured slot. For me, the back 4 pick themselves at the moment, with Nyambe out for the season and Bradley still serving a ban and I'd be worried were we not to start Ebou and Korey in CM. Upfront I'd like to see Washington playing off Collo, given our fairly limited options right now. I think he has a slight pace edge over Waggy, who to my eye, still looks a way off the form we saw from him early season.

I did warn folk about the likely weather for Pompey in the last match thread, but fortunately tonight looks like being a positively balmy 12C and dry, so for the travelling Rams faithful, a rather more pleasant night, results and performance notwithstanding.

For my finger in the air guess, I'm going with a 2-0 win for the Rams, with Nate and Collo on the scoresheet.

Safe journey to all.

COYR

Fester seem desperate not to win the Championship. Their form in recent weeks has been patchy to say the least. Leeds though manage to squander the opportunity to go top by dropping points at home to Sunderland. They now have automatic promotion in their own hands whilst Leeds will have to hope they or fester mess up. Shame. 

2 minutes ago, Crewton said:

Barnsley lose, which probably puts them out of the running for automatic promotion. Orient concede two goals in the last 5 minutes to draw with Exeter, which almost certainly puts them out of the running for the playoffs.

Quite handy if that's the case. Might be a little less interested when we play them.

It's suddenly gone very quiet in the Bernabéu.

LOL, 3 a piece now. Quality game for the neutrals.