Subscribe to this topicForums > General Investment Discussion > Topic: Closing '07 - '08
| Aug 9th 2008, 00:42 Arbitrage Wise |
Closing '07 &amp
Edited by author Aug 10th 2008, 12:53 |
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| Bo’s out of town for a soccer tournament, so I think I’ll surprise him by closing my books publically without seeking his advise first. This won’t be anything with a bunch of ‘Bofart’ in it. Just straight to the point. So if you don’t know the story already, I am currently in debt of approximately 85 million Linden Dollars book value based on original share value, or $310, 000 USD at the rate of 275L per USD. But that’s just what I owe to Second Lifers. I also owe an additional $70,000 USD to real life commitments. So that’s how much I’m closing last year with, and my debt going into this year. However, there’s one catch – I can only do so much if I have money – but I don’t. So first, I’ll tell you where the money went, then I’ll tell you what we’re starting with. Maybe I’ll get someone dumb like me to keep going and put in more money. Second Life was my ONLY source of capital and income, so based on my SLW financials, the 17 Million personal debt can be considered my ‘salary’. So what did I do with this salary. My car is a ’94 Toyota Tacoma, so the money didn’t go there. In fact, while you’re driving, scan for how many cars on the road you see has lesser value than my car. You won’t find many – trust me, I do it often when I think about ‘what if …’ while I’m driving. So let’s just say I didn’t live a lavish lifestyle like everyone thought I did. But to those that still won’t believe me, just think that I ate real good. So now we know what I owe to build my businesses. As we all know, I’m out of funds, so all of my SL businesses now sit idle and incomplete. On to my real life business. Here’s the link to the final numbers from Juicetrading. Unfortunately, I didn’t start keeping books until November, but our year starts at the end of August when Sports Arbitrage season begins. So it’s missing two months: www.jtfinancials.com/ArbitrageWise_PL(Final).xlsx (if you have trouble downloading the xlsx file, here's the link to the original stats: http://www.jtfinancials.com/Arbitrage_Profits.xls) The numbers will show you that we made $130,000 last season. Remember that my only source of income/capital was the 17M, so take away my living expense, add in the additional real life debts, and that’s what our starting investment was. So assuming I had a living expense of say $31,000 a year, our starting investment is $100,000. So our rate of return was 130%. Unfortunately, and a big unfortunately, one of our books went insolvent with about $170,000. So instead of making 130k, we lost 60k. Naturally, I blame this 100% on me. I should not have let the balance go that high in the first place without withdrawing some of the funds. I’m going to close the books there and make sure I don't repeat the same mistake. It’s time to move on – can’t dwell about the past. Here’s our new plan. For many reasons, disclosing this may be one of the most retarded things I going to do, but it’s my final bullet. I just recently applied for a job – given the job market and my lack of corporate experience, don’t expect to get much. We’re starting from the bottom. Since April, once I realized our profits were gone, I started grinding in poker. It was the last option that can provide us some income while I look for and wait on job applications. I made about $10,000 – can’t complain since 90% of poker players lose, and it provided immediate revenue. About $1,000 of it went to personal expense since my fiancé was paying the bills (and she’s starting a new career, so not making much either). The rest went to pay debts and my partner’s venture – a poker bot. I’m not going to go into any details with it, except here are the stats so far: www.jtfinancials.com/PlayaStats.xls The only column you have to know is Column F on the Master worksheet since that tells you our total daily profits. We’re only on our first site, and are growing. You can’t believe there are poker bots out there? Don’t be so naïve. With that, we open our books. A debt of $380,000, and two and one-half businesses: Bot, Juice, and half a Second Life. Second Life is at a standstill for now. Bot is slowly growing, but all profits minus what I really really need will be kept inside the business to keep it growing. Juice can make a lot, but not without any capital. I’m putting in $2000 and will do a daily report to see how we do. I’ll most likely post a daily excel on Google Spreadsheets and on Twitter – I will post the Spreadsheet link once season starts: www.twitter.com/arbitrage But, I’m open to taking unsecured loans. Given what happened last year, I cannot make any guarantees, except that I’ll report the truth. I also know that given the nature of the business, there are some risks involved. But at this point, I’m willing to accept the consequences. Do I really have a choice given my debt? In summary, this is what we have going into this year. If things go well, we’re on our way to getting back on our feet (again) and repaying our debts. But as you will see from the Juice summary, we need a lot of help, aka, a lot of money. Hey, Donald Trump went broke once and owed the banks tons of money. Know what he did? He asked to borrow more. Don’t take my word for it, read the summary. You can contact me at arbitrage.wise@gmail.com if you like my ideas. If I have no takers, then I just have to hope for the best in poker and that I get hired, and that our bot farm and juicetrading (with the starting 2K) do well. If we can somehow get our hands on 200K for juicetrading, I'm VERY confident that we'll be out of debt by April. Here’s a summary of Juice: www.jtfinancials.com/juicetrading.ppt |
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| Aug 9th 2008, 02:55 Ironfist Hutchinson |
Re: Closing '07 - '08 | |
| On the contrary, Taking away the shroud of mystery which only led to counterproductive speculations on the investorside is the best thing you could have done. It is refreshing to see a personal no nonsence or beating around the bush statement that does not scare away people by loudmouthing them. Good to have you back on the workfloor Arb. with regards Hutch |
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| Aug 9th 2008, 03:22 SynCere Talon |
Re: Closing '07 - '08 | |
| Thats all we been asking for Arb. An update on the statuses. Perhaps you might want to link or post this in wallet too. Many of us havent given up yet either. | ||
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| Aug 9th 2008, 04:34 Ironfist Hutchinson |
Re: Closing '07 - '08 | |
| On the risk of being totally misunderstood and even worse ... ripping open some very old wounds. I would like to direct the attention to the following article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_bond The series EE bonds or patriot bonds might serve as a concept template to raise money among those SLCAPEX supporters whom are still willing to contribute to the cause. It seems that the motivation to put in new money by endlessly buying publicly traded shares to balance out their portfolio is comming to a grinding halt due to the heavy losses investors keep suffering on them. My question is, would this be a viable or even possible way to raise funds for at least getting the currently dormand SL project back on its feet and start producing revenue again ? I understand that a suggestion like this could stir up a lot of mixed feelings and bring even more if's and but's accompanied by pro's and con's with it. So I am carefully putting out my antenna to pick up any useable vibes instead of constantly receiving static. With regards Hutch |
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| Aug 9th 2008, 10:01 Arbitrage Wise |
Re: Closing '07 - '08
Edited by author Aug 9th 2008, 10:02 |
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| Actually Ironfist - the ideal way that I would look to raise money right now is through real life loans, back by contracts using sites such as these: http://www.virginmoneyus.com/ I already feel too obligated to the Second Lifers, and those that still want to contribute can do so in real life. However, the only thing I can guarantee in these loans is to pay out the profits made, but cannot make guarantees on profits... although I'm 99% confident that we'll make money from Juice. Last year's numbers don't lie. |
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| Aug 9th 2008, 11:22 Dimitri Gasser |
Re: Closing '07 - '08 | |
| arb I havent looked at any of your sites, but if you run a solid affiliate program drop me a line. I do good things with adwords and my optin lists. There all hungry for shit that makes money ( I fight it out in the work from home niche ) | ||
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| Aug 9th 2008, 13:18 James619 Bagley |
Re: Closing '07 - '08
Edited by author Aug 9th 2008, 13:22 |
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| Aug 9th 2008, 15:14 Kaffe McMahon |
Re: Closing '07 - '08 | |
| I only think that bonds could be used as financial instruments if there is backing by some financial institution. I thought I read at Iventures web site that he works with "Angel Investors" etc that are looking to fund new ideas in SL. I may not have read that correctly though. |
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| Aug 9th 2008, 17:21 Ironfist Hutchinson |
Re: Closing '07 - '0
Edited by author Aug 9th 2008, 17:36 |
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| Well I was strictly looking at it through my SL shades, meaning to search for a way to raise money for jumpstarting the half fininshed SL project that needs a certain amound to get going and thus provide some additional income that would support the solvency of the greater picture. Even small droplets will make a (buck)ett overflow in due time. I did not mean to suggest issuing another interest bearing security that would only put a bigger strain on the difficult situation Arb is currently in, hence the reference to the PATRIOT (concept)(non tradeable) bond that would be issued inworld and could be regarded as an interestless loan from those players (Not crisis investors whom expect a FAT return on a risk like this) that believe in the vision Arb is trying to build and willing to support that in return for the longterm revenue that will surely accompany those bonds when Arb is back in the green. Besides have we not been doing that in most of the cases, providing interestless loans to unknown people with a vague business plan under the promise of superdividends, that we are still waiting on by the way. Seems to me that Arbitrage is a better longterm choise by far. Anyway, it was just a brainfart I had and will open a window to let the wind refresh the room. Hutch |
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| Aug 9th 2008, 20:59 Maisha Slade |
Re: Closing '07 - '08 | |
| hey thanks for the update Arb. wasn't quite realizing the severity of it all, but it's awesome to get a straight explanation of what's going on. Also, how do we set up something through virgin mobile? I still haven't lost faith in you. been going about a year now. also, what's the minimum you're interested in for investments through virgin mobile, or something else? |
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