More Replies to Email

I get a lot of great feedback from my readers. I get other email as well. Here is another installment of replies to emails that I usually ignore (see previous installments here and here).

Dear Melanie,

Thank you for your offer to pay me so you can spam my readers with forex trading ads. It turns out that I don’t keep a list of my readers’ email addresses. Also, I don’t hate them. But if both of these things change, I’ll let you know.

Sincerely,

Michael

--------------------

Dear Vijay,

Thank you for your email offering to sell me your penny-stock domain name as well as all three of your follow-up queries. In the careful study of my web site that you mention, you no doubt saw the synergy between my writing and pushing penny stocks. It’s baffling that I made no offer for your domain. I have no explanation.

Sincerely,

Michael

--------------------

Dear Julia,

Thank you for yet another chance to join your forex affiliate program. I know that retail investors who do forex trading almost always lose money fast, so your offer of up to 2 pips of revenue sharing might be lucrative for me. Unfortunately, I worry that some of the people enticed by your forex platform might be people I care about, or have met, or might meet in the future.

Sincerely,

Michael

Comments

  1. My Own AdvisorFebruary 4, 2015 at 6:38 AM

    Well done :) Thanks for the laugh.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alan W.February 4, 2015 at 9:16 AM

    Oh so those were ForEX ads they wanted to run, I thought it was something to do with circumcision... ok, now that makes sense

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownFebruary 4, 2015 at 11:03 AM

    Thanks for the laughs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Michael JamesFebruary 4, 2015 at 11:05 AM

      @Paul: It's tempting to write these more frequently because I get a lot of these offers. But I don't want it to get too repetitive.

      Delete
  4. TawcanFebruary 4, 2015 at 1:51 PM

    That's hilarious. Thanks for the laugh.

    ReplyDelete
  5. CheapMomFebruary 4, 2015 at 3:59 PM

    Well done!

    ReplyDelete
  6. paulFebruary 4, 2015 at 6:45 PM

    You should be careful, maybe one of these guys will send you a long annoying mail about how your thoughts and the facts they are based on are totally wrong and give you a hard time.

    Oh wait a minute....

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousFebruary 5, 2015 at 10:05 AM

    Did you notice 6/8 of these were from feminin first name?

    Maybe a part of the hooking strategy...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Michael JamesFebruary 5, 2015 at 10:12 AM

      @Anonymous: I'm not touching that one :-)

      Delete
    2. AnonymousFebruary 5, 2015 at 10:25 AM

      it's up to you. I'm just curious about the % over all the request you receive, 6/8 is a bit thin but over 100, that would mean something for sure!!!

      Delete
    3. Michael JamesFebruary 5, 2015 at 11:15 AM

      @Anonymous: I'm happy to discuss the possibility that some senders are male but use a female name. It's the "hooking" part I'm avoiding :-)

      Delete
    4. AnonymousFebruary 5, 2015 at 11:22 AM

      This is my assumption at least, and the reason why I would avoid also ;-)

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Short Takes: InvestorLine’s HISAs, 24-Hour Trading, and more

I recently moved some cash into BMO InvestorLine’s high-interest savings accounts (HISAs) that are structured as mutual funds.  Their designations are BMT104, BMT109, and BMT114, and they purportedly pay 4.35% annual interest (which they can change whenever they like).  However, the way they report the monthly interest payments is so baffling that I wasn’t able to sort it out in my first 15 minutes of trying.  A further complication is the following text in the HISA description: “The Bank may pay, monthly or quarterly, compensation to your Dealer at an annual rate of up to 0.25% of the daily closing balance in the BMO HISA.”  I couldn’t find any evidence of such a charge, but I haven’t been invested for a full quarter, and I can’t yet say that such a charge isn’t buried somehow in the confusing reporting.  I have more digging to do before I can recommend these HISAs. Here are some short takes and some weekend reading: Preet Banerjee explains the dangers of Robi...
Read more

My Asset Allocation

I’ve resisted discussing my asset allocation for some time, but now is finally the time to describe it and the reasons behind it. I’m not holding it out as a model portfolio; I believe it’s suitable for me and not necessarily anyone else. With that warning, enjoy the discussion and feel free to ask questions or take some pot-shots. The main reason why I haven’t discussed my asset allocation in detail before now is that I don’t want readers to treat it like a model portfolio and follow it blindly. Everyone’s situation is different. The need for variation in asset allocation from one investor to the next usually isn’t huge, but there is no one-size-fits-all portfolio. A secondary reason for keeping my asset allocation to myself is that I can’t be sure I’ll never change it. For example, I recently made the minor change of switching from an ETF of small-cap stocks to an ETF of small-cap value stocks . I don’t have any plans to change my current allocation, but I may think differe...
Read more

Updated Currency Exchange Method at BMO InvestorLine

There is now a more recent update of the method I use for exchanging currency at BMO OnvestorLine . I recently changed the procedure I use to convert large sums between Canadian and U.S. dollars at BMO InvestorLine. The method I use saves a lot of money compared to using the InvestorLine foreign exchange system. The latest change I made eliminated an annoying interest charge that I had to ask to be reversed. Most people don’t realize how expensive it can be to exchange currency. The extra charge banks and brokerages add gets hidden in the exchange rate. To see this extra charge, start by taking a sum in Canadian dollars, say C$10,000, and finding out how many U.S. dollars you can get. Then see what this U.S. amount would get going back to Canadian dollars. Many people might guess they’d get their original C$10,000 back, but they’d be wrong. In a recent test I did at BMO InvestorLine, I’d get back C$9754, for a loss of C$246 in two currency exchanges. That’s $123 per excha...
Read more

Archive

Show more