Thursday night.

I love it when I’m proven right in something that actually benefits me. Almost two months ago, I researched and invested into FNMAT – a T-series issue of Fannie Mae’s stock. It had a sizable market cap and was selling at a significant discount off its 52-week high while the rest of the market was booming. Just like every other Fannie Mae stock, it was in a slump and waiting for the outcome of a Supreme Court case (Collins v. Mnuchin) that would decide if the government’s conservatorship of Fannie Mae would end, whether it’s finally paid for its sins leading up to the housing bubble. The case is still pending (the verdict will be out by the end of June) but meanwhile, the stock I bought has jumped from $4.74 to $6.10, a 28.7% increase in less than two months. Feels good, eh.

At the time, I shared my analysis with a group I’m in: mostly tech employees, all of them obsessed with investing. I already got messages from two of my colleagues who said they owe me a dinner and a cider. I’m going to keep holding instead of cashing out: I could get a guaranteed 28.7% profit now, or a chance at a 100% profit in just a few months… Even if fails, I’ll still make a few percentage points.

Such a strange hobby, investing: it takes much longer to master than most hobbies out there (and for many people, that mastery never comes), but then it literally pays off. Heh.

In other news, it turns out being under a 2-week quarantine lockdown/house arrest and choosing to forego pants does, in fact, have disadvantages. My jeans would’ve absorbed most of the bump when I hit my hip against the kitchen counter, but nope, now I’ve got a pretty gnarly-looking gash there. Nothing that requires stitches, but with all the dried blood that’s one impressive-looking medal in my one-man war against pants. (I think “Down with pants!” would make a pretty catchy slogan.)

In covid news… Our little Vaccine Hunters group is growing. There are 88 now, from all walks of life: a guy who got his shot because of his obesity, a few young and healthy people like myself (aka in the back of every line), some who feed the latest news and developments to an awesome local journalist, and at least one more American like myself who drove to get his shot in Ohio. We share stories as well as updates: even in our small group, two people got turned away by hospital gatekeepers even though they had valid appointments. One was told that her mental health issues didn’t qualify and that she should not come back. The other one was told, just earlier today, that epilepsy is not on the list high-risk conditions (it is) and that it had been removed just earlier that morning (it hadn’t been). After 20 minutes and two escalations to supervisors (who also called a security guard for some unknown reason), she finally got her vaccine shot. That was two people out of 88, right here in Ontario. A tiny sample size, I know, but if 2.3% of those who sign up get that kind of treatment… Abhorrent. Absolutely abhorrent – petty bureaucrats power-tripping with their life-or-death power. Not every place is like that: in fact, there appears to be no universal standard of any sort. It’s all just chaos…

In more official covid news, Canada is about to overtake the US in cases per million, which would make for a strange reversal, given all that happened in 2020. The CDC has issued its highest-level alert warning for Canada, saying no one should travel here, even if they’re vaccinated. Jerks. In Brazil, they had the deadliest day yet, with 4,249 covid deaths in 24 hours. (I believe this might be the world record…) Hospitals all over Brazil are starting to run low on oxygen, and this could become even more of a disaster than it already is. And 34% of work-from-home employees said they’d rather quit than return to a full-time office job. After more than a year without commuting, without annoying office neighbours, without paying for parking (aka for the privilege of getting to work), a lot of people have become a bit radicalized, it seems. I’m definitely one of them. This will be one of the more interesting changes of the post-covid world to come… Some companies will try to snap back to full-time office-only operations. Some will set up hybrid arrangements, where their employees can work from home fairly often. Some companies promised they’d give their employees the option of full-time work from home. It’ll be interesting to see if that sticks. This will be just one of many, many social changes once we finally get through this (even though the world won’t get through this at the same time at all), and there’ll probably be some that we can’t even anticipate at this point. What will the future bring?..

Good night, y’all. Stay safe out there.