Buy gold?

As I was waiting at the barber shop, I had two choices.  Look at Fox News or keep my eyes closed.  The visual noise of the multiple banners of modern news broadcasts is bad enough, but the hype of the advertisements is even worse.

One of the ads that caught my attention was a company selling gold.  They offered it at one percent over dealer cost and with free shipping.

First, what do they mean by "dealer cost"?  Is that the cost to buy it in the first place?  Or is it the cost to buy it and sell it together?  After all, the sales people, the management, and the advertising are all costs for the sale.  And isn't the "free shipping" a cost?

Second, if owning gold is such a good deal, why aren't they holding it as an investment?  Won't they make more money by holding it than selling it?  Maybe they are trying to dump it before the price drops even further.

Magree's law of market timing:  When others are excited about buying, keep what you already have.  When others are excited about selling, sell what you already have.

Penny stock ready to soar?

Really?  If a penny stock is ready to soar, why tell anybody else?  Just keep buying as much as you can afford.

You have probably seen these ads dozens or hundreds of times.  I think the thinking behind these ads is of one of two types.

First, the advertisers have bought lots of the unnamed stock and want you to buy some so the price will go up.  When the price goes up and seems to plateau, they sell out at a huge profit.

Second, and more likely, the advertisers want you to buy a "special report".  Once you do, you are on their mailing list and they will try to sell you more reports or their newsletter.  The newsletters may have dubious advice, more so if the writers have a political stance.  They will probably never own many shares of the stocks they promote, if any.

Has "Rachel of cardholder services" been pestering you?

Three times today I've received a robo-call: "Hello, this is Rachel from cardholder services.  There is no problem with your account…"  By then I've generally hung up.  We get these calls about once a week or more.  The three times in one day was a bit much.

I Googled "Rachel" and "cardholder services" and got a long list of complaints of this scam and violation of the "Do Not Call" law.  One example is  "Hard to stop telemarketing calls from 'Rachel'", David Lazarus, Los Angeles Times, 2011-11-29.

Lazurus writes that Rachel is calling from cardmember services, but she actually says "cardholder services".

Cardmember services is the name of a legitimate company that services credit cards.  The use of "cardholder" is a deception that many don't recognize.

You can file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at https://www.donotcall.gov/complaint/complaintcheck.aspx.