Update about JT Investment Certificates

Arbitrage Wise posted today an update on the SLCapex website about the JT Investment Certificates. To comply with the new LindenLab policy, the JTIC are no longer paying a fix interest rate.

Instead they are now a classical investment company with a target of 0.06L$ monthly dividend per share. I dont exaclty understand why this was a need, as the shares are not exchanged within SecondLife, but the move is smart and bottom line is the same, if not better ;-)

The exact information from Arb can be found here: http://www.slcapex.com/home/story/JTIC/1358

We will now see how things will go on, as today is the day LL will supposedly remove all ATMs from institutions paying interests...

JTIC share back at original price

After some strong fluctuations, the price of the JT Investment Certificates (SLCapex: JTIC) came back to its original level, in the 1.12L$ range. When JTF created the JTIC, I bought a bunch of them for 1.05.

During the last weeks, when the banks ban announced by LindenLab shook the banking industry, I was lucky enough to buy a second batch of JTICs at 0.65L$ each. This was kind of a risky bet, but now that the price is back, the question is to know if I must sell some of them or keep them all.

As I continue to trust Arbitrage Wise and the guys at JTF, I will obviously keep them !

Tuesday will be an interesting day as it will be the limit date defined by LL to remove the ATMs... As JTF no longer pays interest, I wonder if they will remove them or not.

2000 L$ by doing nothing !

Since I opened my account by JT Financials, the interests of my savings and the payments from the JT Investment Certificates totalize 2000 L$ !

This is only 0.2% of the million I aim for, but it is a good sign for two reasons:

• I got these 2000 L$ doing absolutely nothing
• The rate at which I earn interests is growing together with my savings

I also re-camped a few hours over last days, and even if I found hard to find good spots, I had the pleasure to re-talk with friends...

As this post is the last for 2007, let me wish you all a Happy New Year 2008 !

End of year bonus - Thank you SLCapex !

My daily routine still do not allow for time in-world, but I keep an eye on my SLCapex accounts, and place orders when needed. End of december will bring in the second JTF Investment Certificates payment, and on top of that two good news came recently:

JTIC to offer Dividend Bonus & Early Dividend Payout
The early dividend is just fine, I would not have the JTF guys working on 1st of January, and there's not a lot to say about dividend bonus, except "Thank You".

SL Capital Exchange (SLCX) to Pay Special One-Time Dividend - 12/18/2007
As a large part of the 5'000L$ offered by Arbitrage Wise are invested in SLCX, this is quite good news.

Money flows in... by itself

Today is good... it's the first time the JT Financials Investment Certificates pay interests. So JohnLight cashed 494 L$ in, and JaneLight about 50 L$.

So thank you JTF, thank you Arbitrage Wise, and continue ! At this pace, I will be millionaire in 166 years. Hopefully I also got standard 0.1% daily interests, so it will be slightly quicker ;-)

Any support appreciated...

Back for more - High Yield Deposit: Done !

I've been away, and then busy over the next days, so I don't have a lot of things to report. The most important thing is that I finally achieve to get 8'000 of the JT Financial High Yield bonds ! Thanks a lot to Reverend Chapman who mentionned in a comment that these bonds can be exchanged on the SL Capital Exchange !

This makes these bonds much better than the term deposit that Ginko issued before they collapsed, because they can be sold at (nearly) anytime. If I feel any risk with JTF, I will sold the bonds.

I also decided to put only two thirds of my JTF deposit in the bonds, to avoid losing too much in case of trouble. So my strategy is now to put my camping savings by JTF on my standard account, to let the bonds generate interests, while still having 10% of my balance safe by APEZ.

The non-human avatar contest with 400L$ to earn is still open, you have until tomorrow 12PM to send your best non-human avatar. I already got some really surprising ones !

No high yield deposit for me - Away from home

I have been waiting for days now, expecting to buy some 0.2% daily bonds from JTF. These have been anounced days ago, and I was thinking about how many I should buy, and so on...

But all of this has been canceled. JTF did issue the bonds, but they all sold within 5 hours, and I got no chance to get some, as I was offline by that time...

No change in my strategy then, I'll continue to camp and use my saving account. If any of you was lucky engough to get such bonds and wants to keep me informed, I'd be really happy.

Nothing else to report today, as I'm away from home on a business trip. I found an internet connection so I can go in-world (call me addicted...) and I will camp a bit this night. I also had time to meet Stroh Bing who had a surprise for me... but this is still a secret now. More on this later (call me teaser)...

Financial update

My financial strategy is still the same, I put all my earnings (camping, group fees and shop income) on my JT Financials account, where they generate new income via interests. Parallely to that, to be able to restart in case of major issue with JT Financials, I put at least 10% of my total money by APEZ. I don't get any interest from the reserve, but it's not at risk.

I could also use my cash accounts for the reserve, but this increase the risk of doing silly things with it... For the time being, the reserve is at 2'000 L$, so I don't need to do any transfer today.

To show again how good is a bank paying interest, here is an overview of my JTF account since I opened it...

Total Deposit: 13'257 L$
Total Withdrawal: 1'201 L$
Total Interest 476 L$
Total Affiliate Bonus: 15 L$
Total : 12'548L$

If I consider my total balance, excluding the gift from Arbitrage Wise, it reaches 14'548 L$. The interests represent 3.3% of the total, which is not negligible !

In fact the percentage of interests in my total wealth is higher, depending how I consider Stroh's gift after the Ginko crash, because my losses included some ineterest generated by Ginko. Anyway, this would make the interest proportion higher.

This clearly shows how important the interests are, and with time they will be more and more important with the growth of my total balance.

If you're convinced it's time for you to open an account, you can do it via the ATM in the mini-shop (SLURL in the right side column)...

Regarding the 5'000 L$ gift from Arbitrage, my results on the SLCapex market are not exactly outstanding, as by the time I'm writing this post the total value of my stocks is 3'777 L$ ! I'm still working of strategies to get it better, and will post about it when I'll have found a working one !

Improving this blog ?- Express yourself !

To get a better idea of what you like, I opened a poll in the right hand column of this page. Please take 30 seconds to vote, so that I can improve the content of this blog.

If you have other wishes / tips / remarks, they're all welcome via comments on this post, or per e-mail if you want more privacy.

Now, the floor is yours !

SLCapex end of week 1 - Can you beat the market ? I can't

The adverts for JT Financial SL Capital Exchange asks "Can you beat the market ?". About myself, the answer is clear: no. One week after receiving 5'000L$ from Arbitrage Wise, my portfolio has a market value around 4'300 L$. Even if the loss is virtual only as I did not sell yet, I can't say it's a great victory.

Neverthelss, I will contine to work on my investment strategy, and I'll report here when I will find a startegy... that works. But for the time being, here again no wonder: no money without effort !

SLCapex Day 4 - First dividends

This is the only thing I've got to report from my investments on the SL Capital Exchange for today: I reveived about 7L$ in dividends from one of the companies I invested in. It was not a surprise, it was announced by the company, and discussed in the forums.

Apart from that, I placed sell orders for all my shares, so if the price raise enough, they will be automatically sold. No need to monitor them constantly then... which helps focusing on other activities while my money works for me.

SLCapex Day 3 - Still learning

By the end of my third day on the Second Life Capital Exchange, I still did not loose all my money. Not so bad for a beginner ;-).

The lesson for today relates to the quite low liquidity of this market... be cool. The value of my portfolio changed, from 3'700 to 5'200 without any transaction. High volatility results from a combination of very low stock prices, and proportionally large bid - ask gaps.

Typically, when a stock price changes from 0.40L$ to 0.41L$, this single cent represent 2.5% ! Some stock prices are evolving quite slowly, there are sometimes hours between transactions. For the time being, my strategy is to place sell orders immediately after I bought, so I won't miss any sell opportunity. This obviously applies only to the short term part of my portfolio only. I try not looking at the long term part, to avoid any quick move temptation.

We will see in the next days if this strategies will lead me to my million or not...

SLCapex Day 2 - Short and long term... 24 / 7

On SLCapex as on any market, there are two ways of investing, short or long term. For my first moves on this market, I decided to be very conservative, so as not to lose everything the first week.

I invested about 95% with a long-term view, and I kept the remaining 5% for daily investments, and very quick moves. Typically when there is an interesting bid - ask gap, and some persons placing market orders, it gets possible to gain money very quickly. The only risks are to be locked with unsalable stocks, or not to gain enough to compensate for the 2.5% fee on the sales.

However for very small amounts, the fact that the fee is only proportional makes it quite good. Many real life markets have minimal fees, so if you make very small transactions, all your potential benefits are canceled by the fees.

Another major difference between SL Capital Exchange and other markets is that... it never closes ! One can argue that any major investor in real-life will use many markets worldwide, so time differences will make it like a global 24 / 7 market... but such guys also have traders working for them on all these markets !

Managing a short term portfolio on a 24 / 7 market can quickly become an addictive and exhausting activity !

From Camper to Investor - Much to do

As you can imagine, my encounter with Arbitrage Wise and his 5'000 L$ gift did slightly change my view of the quest. Until now I used to be a camper, and occasionally a gamer, but now a new way of earning money appeared, and will require a strategy adjustment.

The possibility to use an SL stock exchange to invest my money and possibly gain some more is not new to me. However until now I did not had enough money nor time to start such an activity. Now, this is no longer an option, as the deal with Arbitrage is that he gave me 5'000 to invest on SL Capital exchange. I promised not to withdraw any money from there until I reach my goal of 1'000'000 L$.

So I'm now investor on the SL Capital Exchange (www.slcapex.com), with an initial balance of 5'000 L$. I will have to update my strategy, and define and investment plan. I'll also have to update the "My Balance" widget, as I moved my money from Midas to JT Financials as well.

On top of that, Josephina had troubles with the club building, and the mini-shop is out of order for the time being. Moreover, my normal (read powerful enough for SL client) computer is still not fixed. I also have to publish the underwater campsite address, and I've got a report from a member of "Free Money from JohnLight" about a prize he won on the net.

As you see, I've got tons of things to do, so I'll have to work hard to stay up to date. I will do my best, also considering RL and other projects. Stay tuned...