site banner
birb_cromble  7hr ago (text post)   137 thread views

Weekly Finance Thread

Since a lot of us here have expressed interest in not starving to death in a gutter, I figured I'd start a weekly thread to discuss financial matters.

Ground Rules

  • Remember that we're all just Internet randos. Don't bet your life savings on a hot tip from this thread.
  • Keep culture war in the culture war thread. Yes, global events may impact our personal finances, but that does not mean we have to incessantly harp on culture war aspects here. If you are going to discuss it, please stick to the practical impacts of it on an individual level.
  • Be kind. Remember that everyone here comes from different circumstances. We all have different resources available and different risk tolerances.
  • Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Better is better. Celebrate people when they take a step up and work to move their finances in the right direction. Don't flame out because they haven't followed what you consider the optimal path. Everybody has to start somewhere.
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

What the hell is going on in Korea?

South Korea's stock market suffered a sharp selloff on Friday after a historic rally pushed valuations and investor positioning to extreme levels, exposing how heavily the market had become dependent on a handful of artificial intelligence-linked semiconductor stocks. The benchmark Kospi plunged 6%, wiping out early gains after briefly crossing the 8,000 mark for the first time in history during morning trade.

Is anyone putting money into Korean equities? There is a lot of momentum in that area, but momentum investing is a risky game. In some ways, it feels like the Korean market is a preview of the US one. They're smaller, and growth even more concentrated in the semiconductor --> GPU --> data center --> AI chain than the US is.

They also have the smallest remaining oil stockpiles, so it's possible Hormuz is finally hitting them.

I hold Korean equities insofar as I hold international ETFs/mutual funds. It's not uncommon for emerging markets and the smaller developed markets to experience eyebrow-raising one-day drops. Korea is only about 2.3% of the global portfolio.

Korea is one of those weird economies/markets that's classified as both emerging and developed, depending on who's doing it, right?

A given investment company won't classify an in-between country like Korea as both emerging and developed simultaneously, but indeed, investment company A might consider Korea developed but company B consider it emerging for fund composition purposes. An example of A would be Vanguard, an example of B would be BlackRock (whose index funds typically track MSCI indices, which classify Korea as such).

I think so. I've seen Korean stocks in both international and emerging market funds.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats