Long story short, we have been together for over four years. I was 17 when the relationship first started so very young. When we were younger, we were very toxic and immature, but as the years went on we both changed and I thought we found our feet.
We have been through a lot together and I will vouch for myself and say that I have supported him through his worst life experiences. However, I didn’t feel fulfilled and like he cared or prioritised me and I was too anxious to stay in it so we broke up in august 2023.
Fast forward to February 2024. I had spent six months being extremely sad over him and hurting over our breakup, thinking we could still make it work. He reached out to talk about it, and I hesitated, but after we talked I felt like he had matured.
Three months went by, and I still felt neglected and sad and constantly alone in it. I communicated myself and cried so much during this time. At this point, I accepted that he may not be for me. I felt so unloved and like my needs and happiness didn’t matter to him. We spent some time together and spoke about it, and had an open conversation. He was soooo communicative, listened, spent time with me, called me beautiful, talked about marrying me and having children with me. I was happy.
AND THEN…… I checked his phone one night. Found all these girls he had been seeing behind my back, screenshots of video calls, everything I never thought I would find. Left and cried and couldn’t eat for a few days. I met him to talk about it because I felt like I needed to know the truth, but he kept sugarcoating things and wasn’t truthful at all. He begged for me back but I couldn’t stand him. I was hurt and angry, but I would never let myself accept unfaithfulness.
I went home, blocked him on absolutely everything and haven’t cried once since. He cheated and then had the audacity to lie to my face about it. I feel so distantly disappointed in him. But I know it’s a him problem and I won’t let myself question my value over it. But my question is, why am I so unaffected? Why am I almost relieved? I feel like I dodged a bullet, someone I would’ve been miserable with who would’ve never quite fixed up. I see that he is not the man I loved at all, and I feel sorry for him for being such a low, empty human being. His punishment is the person he is.
I am sad for the memories and love we had, and the future we will never have. I am sad that things didn’t work out and that something I valued was something he didn’t. But I feel almost free, like I am looking forward to the future and finally being alone without him. I’m a little bit lost and scared because I thought he was my future but so grateful that I never have to deal with him again. At one point I loved him so much and he was everything to me.
I’m confused. I didn’t expect to feel this way.

Well that was fun! Here’s today’s recap, + What might come
Well that was fun. Here’s a Recap, + What might come
DISCLAIMER ⚠️ I AM NOT A FINANCIAL ADVISOR, THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVISE
To any other FFIE investors with more knowledge on what’s going on right now, as well as more experience in retail investing, please feel free to correct me on, or to add onto any point in this post.
Okay - We made it. It wasn’t easy, definitely a little scary, but the market is closed (after hours are open but we will get to that later), and now we rest. But I know a lot of you crazy apes weren’t paying too much attention to every second of the day, that’s where I help out. Here’s a little recap of how today went:
After ending the day at $1.03 per share Friday, we opened up strong during today’s pre-market hours at $1.73 per share. What does this mean? Well it means a lot of you crazy little apes had orders placed, or the even crazier ones were up during pre-market placing orders in. Now that’s serious dedication 😳
Now, I know what you’re thinking. “All the other apes said today we were going to the moon! We’re still under $2! Where’s our money??” Not so fast silly little ape. Come, let me teach you about volume. 👨‍🏫
Today’s volume was a WHOPPING 677.89M.😱 What’s “today’s volume” ? Volume is the total of buys & sells of a stock in a certain time period. For a stock like FFIE, 677.89M is a BIG number. And because a lot of us HELD like we were supposed to, we finished regular market hours at +65.05% than friday evening. 👏🏼👏🏼 But why wasn’t it more? Why didn’t FFIE boom like other silly little apes promised? It’s simple, keep following me and you’ll understand, I promise. 🙂‍↕️
Because of the short ladder attack against us on Friday, the SEC gave us a hand and sanctioned a new uptick rule (see here - https://www.reddit.com/FFIE/s/nw6Rt12bmm ). This leaves the big bad suits with 2 options (paraphrased from u/Maximum-Purpose-1568 , Thank you sima’am): “ 1. They can cut their losses, and buy up the shares at current market value (this is the beginning of a cascade where the "squeezers" all get rich). Essentially, any share that a hedge fund purchases to mitigate their losses will increase the value of our shares. 2. They can continue to hold their shorted stock "loans" and hope the market drops again next week. If this is the case, you will need to continue to hold your shares until they crack (they pay a lot of money for each day they continue to short)”
So what happened? What does all this crazy talk mean!?!? Well given what happened today (a steady change in stock price throughout market hours, and very little volatility compared to recent days), this only means the Big Bad Suits chose option 2. They don’t think we’re serious and they’re doubling down. So what now? 🤔 We triple down. 😤
You see my fellow banana peelers, this was never a scam. This was never a get rich overnight scheme. This is quite literally, a fight between the rich, and the poor. The wolves in suits collectively believe we will give up, sell, and walk away, ultimately leaving them to walk away Scott free. Oh no, not this time. 👎🏼
So what do we do? Well, I can only tell you what CAN HAPPEN.
I AM NOT A FINANCIAL ADVISOR. THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVISE
Right now at the rate that you crazy apes are going, we can keep FFIE above a dollar for 7 more closing nights. What would this mean? This would mean the Hedge’s have 7 days until FFIE officially can no longer be delisted from NASDAQ.👏🏼 Now because these Hedge’s betted AGAINST FFIE, this is absolutely not good news for them because they’d have to pay back the stocks they shorted, plus the interest (which all depends on how much we can make this stock rise). This is what we’re all waiting for. “The Short Squeeze.” 🍋🍋
“Big Ape! Too many words!!” Okay Okay, i’ll dumb it down for you. The smartest moves for us little guys to collectively make would be to buy, and hold. 💎🤲🏼 “But if we all buy and hold then how come there are still dips?” Because the Hedge’s will sell their shares. This causes the price of the stock to fall. They do this purposefully to make us panic, and sell. “So what do WE do about that?” Simple, we eat those shares right up. Remember, the Hedge’s are hoping we ignore these sold shares, as well as sell our owned shares, they don’t really want to lose the shares they sell. The way to genuinely stick it to them besides holding, is to buy during the dip. “How do I know its the best time to buy??” No one knows when a dip will end. The best thing to do is to go with your gut feeling and to buy when YOU feel comfortable. Remember, a dip is bound to come back up as long as we Hold and Buy, so don’t get too greedy when it comes to the best price per share. PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD
New post - https://www.reddit.com/FFIE/s/5m9YiNySoH

ANALYSIS section will be posted separately on my sub Tradingedge
DATA LEDE:

• RBA minutes - Australia
• Said they will try not to excessively fine tune policy
• Future changes to cash rate are difficult to rule in or out
• CPI short term variation can be easily and reasonably overlooked
• Recent data does point to slightly increased inflation risks
• NEUTRAL/HAWKISH overall
• Australia consumer confidence numbers drop 0.3% MOM
• German PPI came 0.2% MOM vs 0.2% expected, in line with last months reading.
• YOY came in at -3.3% slightly below expected value of -3.2%. Came in light which is good for German inflation picture.
• Yellen Speech - no real meaningful comments
• EU balance of trade numbers hit a new yearly high. Points to improving world demand environment.
• Fed speakers include:
• Barkin, Waller, Williams, Bostic, Barr
• BoE’s Bailey to speak too

MARKETS:

• SPX: Maintained above 5300, now trading at 5311. Yesterday, touched 5325, before moving lower again. DJI: Trading at 39,813, just below 40k. Opened yesterday above 40k but moved lower on JPM weakness.
• Nasdaq: trading flat at 18,665. Support will now be at around 18,350.
• Ger40: Slightly lower today, at 18,600. Some slight profit taking near the highs.
• HKG50: Moving lower again for 2nd day in a row. Now at 19,240. Yesterday, was at 19,750 at one point. So down 2.7% across yesterday and today.
• Oil - hit 80 yesterday on WTI but was rejected off there. Lower today to 78, down by 1.5%. Back to range bound.
• Gold: Trading at 2418, Support at 2400.
• VIX: After getting crushed to 12 yesterday, bounced up off of there, now higher.

FX:

• DXY moving flat today and yesterday, around 104.5
• Had fallen to 100d moving average after CPI then moved higher, bouncing from there.
• EURUSD positioning still bullish, flat, slightly higher at 1.087
• GBPUSD moving higher again, trading at 1.272
• AUDUSD at 0.667,
• Has broken out of the long term downtrend.

EARNINGS:

• PANW Current Quarter:
• Revenues of 1.985B beat by 0.8%. Revenues rose 15% YOY
• Products revenue beat by 1.2%
• Subscriptions and support revenue beat by 0.3%
• EPS of 1.32 Beat expectations of 1.25 - beat by 5.6%
• Operating income was 508M, beat by 3.5%
• Operating margin was 25.6% , beat by 69 bps
• Billings came more or less in line
• Deferred revenue basically in line, slight miss.
• NEXT QUARTER GUIDANCE:
• EPS of 1.41 v slightly missed expectations of 1.42
• Revenue came in line with consensus at 2.16B
• Billings guidance beat consensus v slightly.
• FULL YEAR GUIDANCE:
• EPS of 5.56-5.58 beat estimates of 5.51
• Revenue of 8B beat estimates of 7.98B
• Billings of 10.15.5B was up 10-11% YoY
• CEO Nikesh Arora: Enthusiastic response to pjatformization and AI infused security outcomes.
• In conference call said that billings isn’t the only important measure, hence investors should overlook the slight softness in billings.
• Said cybersecurity demand will continue to grow for next several quarters, and PANW will benefit.
• Cyberattacks are scaling and aren’t going away. AI will increase these threats. So the tailwinds for PANW are very strong.

XPEV

• EPS of -0.75 was much better than the -2.06 expected
• Revenue of 6.55B beat estimates of 6.19B. Up 63% YOY, but down 50% QOQ
• Vehicle margin was 5.5%, which was up from 4.1% last quarter, and up form -2.5% last year SO VEHICLE MARGIN IMPROVED
• Vehicle sales came in at 5.54B yuan, up 50% YOY but down 50% QOQ
• Gross margin was 12.9%, up from 1.7% last year and 6.2% last quarter
• SO MARGINS IMPROVED, SALES WERE WORSE THAN LAST QUARTER
• In April saw 9,393 vehicles delivered
• Partnership with Volkswagen group on E/E architecture
• Release of AI powered functions
• GROSS MARGIN IMPROVEMENT DESPITE COMPETITION AND OTHERS CUTTING PRICES WAS A KEY BENEFIT.

NEXT QUARTER GUDIANCE:

• Revenue 7.5-8.3B miss by 15%
• Delivered of 29-32K. Up 30% YOY

MACYS:

• Current quarter:
• ADJ EPS $0.27 vs. $0.56 y/y, EST $0.14. BEAT
• EPS $0.22 vs. $0.56 y/y
• Net sales $4.8B, -3.7% y/y, EST $4.81B. IN LINE
• Gross margin 39.2% vs. 40% y/y, EST 39.6%. MISS
• SG&A expense $1.9B, -2.6% y/y, EST $1.98B. MISS
• GUIDANCE:
• Raised guidance from 2.45-2.85 to 2.55-2.9.
• Raised by 4%
• Beat estimates by 4%, although is a wide guidance
• Sees Net sales at 22.3-22.9B, raising bottom end up slightly from 22.2B.
• More or less in line with guidance.
• Merchandise margins down 100bps due to additional discounting
• Merchandise inventories are well positioned for upcoming summer season
• Credit card revenues down slightly due to higher delinquency rates
• Turnaround plan showing signs of progress as they beat and raise guidance.

LOWES:

• Current quarter:
• EPS of 3.67 beat estimates of 2.95
• Revenue of 21.4B was down YOY by 4%, but beat estimates by 1.3%
• Comparables sales were down 4%
• Reaffirms FY guidance:
• EPS of 12-12.3 vs estimate of 12.19. So miss slightly by 0.4%
• Revenue of 84-85B, basically in line.
• EXPECTS COMPARABLE SALES TO BE DOWN 2-3% vs estimates of 2.43% down.

MAG 7:

• MSFT yesterday, said that Copilot Plus PCs will be based on Qualcomm’s snapdragon X Elite chips, and will offer 15 hours of web browsing and 20 hours of video battery life. MSFT says it’ll outperform MacBook Air.
• On Copilot Plus, Neural processor enables new AI features such as recall for a searchable PC memory.
• MSFT estimates 50 million AI PCs will be sold over the next year. Said its rearchitectured Windows 11 is 58% faster than Apple’s MacBook Air.
• MSFT - restructures Windows 11 for better ARM hardware support and AI integration. Introduces prism emulator, launched to improve compatibility with older x86 and x64 apps. MSFT says Prism emulator is 20% faster than previous versions.
• AAPL - Files law suit to overturn $1.8B EU antitrust fine over App Store rules. AAPL is challenging a 1.8B fine.
• MSFT - OpenAI will be sued by Scarlett Johansson for basically copying her voice against her explicit instruction not to.
• TSLA - Tesla shareholder group still not happy with Elon Musk’s $56B pay package. Urged other investors to reject a $56B pay package.

OTHER COMPANIES:

• XPEV higher on their strong earnings
• MACYS higher on improving picture
• LOW - higher on earnings
• Crypto stocks higher on strong Bitcoin performance
• LRCX 10-1 stock split
• PANW lower on eanrings, seems harsh to me. Other crypto names down in sentiment.
• Chinese stocks lower as Hong Kong MARKET down 1.5% today.
• NOVA - Piper Sandler downgrades Sunnova Energy to neutral from overweight, lowered price target to 4.50 from 9. Analyst had upgraded sun nova in December on expectation of lower rates, but rates have stayed high.
• Li - postpones the launch of its all electric SUVs to the first half of 2025, citing inadequate charging stations and other constraints. CEO emphasised the need for sufficient branded charging stations and more display spots.
• DOWN 4% AGAIN TODAY ON THIS.
• BABA - Alibaba cloud slashes prices for its latest LLM model, Tongyi Qianwen, by up to 97%
• BIDU - in response to Alibaba’s move, BIDU made its ENITRE Speed and ENIRE lite models entirely free to use.
• So we are seeing price wars in AI market.
• JPM says that they will not be increasing buybacks of JPM stock at these prices. Will just continue with previously outlined buyback pace.
• Jamie Dimon also hinted at retirement in the speech, hence JPM lower yesterday
• DELL - Citi raises dell price target to 170 from 125. Optimistic they can gain market share more in AI.
• JD - announces a proposed offering of $1.5B in convertible senior notes, due 2029. Will use proceeds to repurchase shares and expand overseas business.
• PTON - plans global refinancing to address debt. Secured nearly $1.4B in new credit facilities.
• ASML and TSM said they have measures in place to remotely disable advanced EUV chip making machines if China was to invade Taiwan.
• QCOM - shares were higher yesterday after Several big companies including Dell and MSFT announced AI laptops using Qualcomm’s snapdragon X elite chip. MSFT says these devices will outperform apple MacBook Air M3.
• ARM - MSFT will announce Arm powered laptops
• WEN - launches a $3 breakfast deal, including small seasoned potatoes, choice of bacon, eggs and cheese or sausage, eggs and cheese muffin. Rivals Mcdonalds $5value meal
• DASH - expanded its partnership with ULTA beauty to offer on demand delivery in under an hour from 1350 stores across all 50 states.
• VFS - US regulators are probing a vin fast VF 8 Crash, that killed 4 in California.
• LLY - secures china approval for diabetes drug, Tirzepatide. Received approval in China for its diabetes drug.
• BA - one killed on Singapore Airlines Boeing 777 due to severe turbulence.
• DIS - Redburn upgrades to neutral from Sell. Price target 100.
• Samsung - appoints new chief for its chip business, amid competition.

OThER NEWS:

• BTC higher to 72K.
• ETH popped 20% yesterday on renewed optimism for ETF, that SEC might green light spot ether ETFs ahead of first deadline later this week.
• Yardeni research sees Dow Jones DJI at 60k and SPX at 8k by 2030
• Mester’s comments yesterday:
• 3 rate cuts this year is no longer appropriate.
• April CPI was good, but too soon to say what path inflation is on. She said she doesnt think about rate cuts in terms of when. We can raise rates but its not base case. That’s bearish, but also unrealistic. I think there’s less risk now that we are too restrictive, and inflation risks are to upside.
• BEARISH COMMENTS FROM MESTER OVERALL
• Jefferson’s Comments yesterday:
• April inflation was encouraging. Labour market coming into better balance. Inflation decline isn’t as fast as we had liked. Policy is restrictive. - NEUTRAL comments, I’d say.
• Following these comments, Bank of America said that whilst the bar for rate hikes is still v high, rate cuts are still far off. Said Services inflation still running way above target.
• Bank of America believes markets got excited at the print, said markets pricing 50bps of cuts are likely to get disappointed.
• Did push back on stagflation narrative.
• SPACEX Q1 launch report shows that SpaceX is now launching 87% of all payload to orbit, a new record high.
• New Yorkers on average earned $89K last year, meaning that without spending more than 30% of annual income on rent, they can afford $2,216 on housing. That’s only enough to afford 4.4% of rentals.
• Marko Kolanovic held his bearish outlook on stocks, urging clients not to buy. So not all bears are capitulating.
• Fidelity ethereal fund says that the trust’s Ether will not be staked.
• IMF official expects next stage for BOE is to ease rates, says UK monetary policy is at inflection point. Actions by UK authorities are paying off.
• Said BoE should cut rates by 50-75bps in 2024.
• Upgraded UK growth forecast to 0.7% this year from 0.5% previously
• Dubai Airport expects record passenger traffic this year, set to top 100M by 2027.

For more of my content, please join Tradingedge

I’m at the point where my voice passes after several years, and I’ve helped some trans women in my life with their voices. I’m thinking of starting a YouTube channel to really go in-depth on my voice journey and tips/resources/exercises that can be helpful.
I’m just wondering is this still a space where we need more free online resources? I wanted to put this out here before I go make a whole YouTube channel for this. I appreciate y’all!

DATA LEDE:

• RBA minutes - Australia
• Said they will try not to excessively fine tune policy
• Future changes to cash rate are difficult to rule in or out
• CPI short term variation can be easily and reasonably overlooked
• Recent data does point to slightly increased inflation risks
• NEUTRAL/HAWKISH overall
• Australia consumer confidence numbers drop 0.3% MOM
• German PPI came 0.2% MOM vs 0.2% expected, in line with last months reading.
• YOY came in at -3.3% slightly below expected value of -3.2%. Came in light which is good for German inflation picture.
• Yellen Speech - no real meaningful comments
• EU balance of trade numbers hit a new yearly high. Points to improving world demand environment.
• Fed speakers include:
• Barkin, Waller, Williams, Bostic, Barr
• BoE’s Bailey to speak too

MARKETS:

• SPX: Maintained above 5300, now trading at 5311. Yesterday, touched 5325, before moving lower again. DJI: Trading at 39,813, just below 40k. Opened yesterday above 40k but moved lower on JPM weakness.
• Nasdaq: trading flat at 18,665. Support will now be at around 18,350.
• Ger40: Slightly lower today, at 18,600. Some slight profit taking near the highs.
• HKG50: Moving lower again for 2nd day in a row. Now at 19,240. Yesterday, was at 19,750 at one point. So down 2.7% across yesterday and today.
• Oil - hit 80 yesterday on WTI but was rejected off there. Lower today to 78, down by 1.5%. Back to range bound.
• Gold: Trading at 2418, Support at 2400.
• VIX: After getting crushed to 12 yesterday, bounced up off of there, now higher.

FX:

• DXY moving flat today and yesterday, around 104.5
• Had fallen to 100d moving average after CPI then moved higher, bouncing from there.
• EURUSD positioning still bullish, flat, slightly higher at 1.087
• GBPUSD moving higher again, trading at 1.272
• AUDUSD at 0.667,
• Has broken out of the long term downtrend.

EARNINGS:

• PANW Current Quarter:
• Revenues of 1.985B beat by 0.8%. Revenues rose 15% YOY
• Products revenue beat by 1.2%
• Subscriptions and support revenue beat by 0.3%
• EPS of 1.32 Beat expectations of 1.25 - beat by 5.6%
• Operating income was 508M, beat by 3.5%
• Operating margin was 25.6% , beat by 69 bps
• Billings came more or less in line
• Deferred revenue basically in line, slight miss.
• NEXT QUARTER GUIDANCE:
• EPS of 1.41 v slightly missed expectations of 1.42
• Revenue came in line with consensus at 2.16B
• Billings guidance beat consensus v slightly.
• FULL YEAR GUIDANCE:
• EPS of 5.56-5.58 beat estimates of 5.51
• Revenue of 8B beat estimates of 7.98B
• Billings of 10.15.5B was up 10-11% YoY
• CEO Nikesh Arora: Enthusiastic response to pjatformization and AI infused security outcomes.
• In conference call said that billings isn’t the only important measure, hence investors should overlook the slight softness in billings.
• Said cybersecurity demand will continue to grow for next several quarters, and PANW will benefit.
• Cyberattacks are scaling and aren’t going away. AI will increase these threats. So the tailwinds for PANW are very strong.

XPEV

• EPS of -0.75 was much better than the -2.06 expected
• Revenue of 6.55B beat estimates of 6.19B. Up 63% YOY, but down 50% QOQ
• Vehicle margin was 5.5%, which was up from 4.1% last quarter, and up form -2.5% last year SO VEHICLE MARGIN IMPROVED
• Vehicle sales came in at 5.54B yuan, up 50% YOY but down 50% QOQ
• Gross margin was 12.9%, up from 1.7% last year and 6.2% last quarter
• SO MARGINS IMPROVED, SALES WERE WORSE THAN LAST QUARTER
• In April saw 9,393 vehicles delivered
• Partnership with Volkswagen group on E/E architecture
• Release of AI powered functions
• GROSS MARGIN IMPROVEMENT DESPITE COMPETITION AND OTHERS CUTTING PRICES WAS A KEY BENEFIT.

NEXT QUARTER GUDIANCE:

• Revenue 7.5-8.3B miss by 15%
• Delivered of 29-32K. Up 30% YOY

MACYS:

• Current quarter:
• ADJ EPS $0.27 vs. $0.56 y/y, EST $0.14. BEAT
• EPS $0.22 vs. $0.56 y/y
• Net sales $4.8B, -3.7% y/y, EST $4.81B. IN LINE
• Gross margin 39.2% vs. 40% y/y, EST 39.6%. MISS
• SG&A expense $1.9B, -2.6% y/y, EST $1.98B. MISS
• GUIDANCE:
• Raised guidance from 2.45-2.85 to 2.55-2.9.
• Raised by 4%
• Beat estimates by 4%, although is a wide guidance
• Sees Net sales at 22.3-22.9B, raising bottom end up slightly from 22.2B.
• More or less in line with guidance.
• Merchandise margins down 100bps due to additional discounting
• Merchandise inventories are well positioned for upcoming summer season
• Credit card revenues down slightly due to higher delinquency rates
• Turnaround plan showing signs of progress as they beat and raise guidance.

LOWES:

• Current quarter:
• EPS of 3.67 beat estimates of 2.95
• Revenue of 21.4B was down YOY by 4%, but beat estimates by 1.3%
• Comparables sales were down 4%
• Reaffirms FY guidance:
• EPS of 12-12.3 vs estimate of 12.19. So miss slightly by 0.4%
• Revenue of 84-85B, basically in line.
• EXPECTS COMPARABLE SALES TO BE DOWN 2-3% vs estimates of 2.43% down.

MAG 7:

• MSFT yesterday, said that Copilot Plus PCs will be based on Qualcomm’s snapdragon X Elite chips, and will offer 15 hours of web browsing and 20 hours of video battery life. MSFT says it’ll outperform MacBook Air.
• On Copilot Plus, Neural processor enables new AI features such as recall for a searchable PC memory.
• MSFT estimates 50 million AI PCs will be sold over the next year. Said its rearchitectured Windows 11 is 58% faster than Apple’s MacBook Air.
• MSFT - restructures Windows 11 for better ARM hardware support and AI integration. Introduces prism emulator, launched to improve compatibility with older x86 and x64 apps. MSFT says Prism emulator is 20% faster than previous versions.
• AAPL - Files law suit to overturn $1.8B EU antitrust fine over App Store rules. AAPL is challenging a 1.8B fine.
• MSFT - OpenAI will be sued by Scarlett Johansson for basically copying her voice against her explicit instruction not to.
• TSLA - Tesla shareholder group still not happy with Elon Musk’s $56B pay package. Urged other investors to reject a $56B pay package.

OTHER COMPANIES:

• XPEV higher on their strong earnings
• MACYS higher on improving picture
• LOW - higher on earnings
• Crypto stocks higher on strong Bitcoin performance
• LRCX 10-1 stock split
• PANW lower on eanrings, seems harsh to me. Other crypto names down in sentiment.
• Chinese stocks lower as Hong Kong MARKET down 1.5% today.
• NOVA - Piper Sandler downgrades Sunnova Energy to neutral from overweight, lowered price target to 4.50 from 9. Analyst had upgraded sun nova in December on expectation of lower rates, but rates have stayed high.
• Li - postpones the launch of its all electric SUVs to the first half of 2025, citing inadequate charging stations and other constraints. CEO emphasised the need for sufficient branded charging stations and more display spots.
• DOWN 4% AGAIN TODAY ON THIS.
• BABA - Alibaba cloud slashes prices for its latest LLM model, Tongyi Qianwen, by up to 97%
• BIDU - in response to Alibaba’s move, BIDU made its ENITRE Speed and ENIRE lite models entirely free to use.
• So we are seeing price wars in AI market.
• JPM says that they will not be increasing buybacks of JPM stock at these prices. Will just continue with previously outlined buyback pace.
• Jamie Dimon also hinted at retirement in the speech, hence JPM lower yesterday
• DELL - Citi raises dell price target to 170 from 125. Optimistic they can gain market share more in AI.
• JD - announces a proposed offering of $1.5B in convertible senior notes, due 2029. Will use proceeds to repurchase shares and expand overseas business.
• PTON - plans global refinancing to address debt. Secured nearly $1.4B in new credit facilities.
• ASML and TSM said they have measures in place to remotely disable advanced EUV chip making machines if China was to invade Taiwan.
• QCOM - shares were higher yesterday after Several big companies including Dell and MSFT announced AI laptops using Qualcomm’s snapdragon X elite chip. MSFT says these devices will outperform apple MacBook Air M3.
• ARM - MSFT will announce Arm powered laptops
• WEN - launches a $3 breakfast deal, including small seasoned potatoes, choice of bacon, eggs and cheese or sausage, eggs and cheese muffin. Rivals Mcdonalds $5value meal
• DASH - expanded its partnership with ULTA beauty to offer on demand delivery in under an hour from 1350 stores across all 50 states.
• VFS - US regulators are probing a vin fast VF 8 Crash, that killed 4 in California.
• LLY - secures china approval for diabetes drug, Tirzepatide. Received approval in China for its diabetes drug.
• BA - one killed on Singapore Airlines Boeing 777 due to severe turbulence.
• DIS - Redburn upgrades to neutral from Sell. Price target 100.
• Samsung - appoints new chief for its chip business, amid competition.

OThER NEWS:

• BTC higher to 72K.
• ETH popped 20% yesterday on renewed optimism for ETF, that SEC might green light spot ether ETFs ahead of first deadline later this week.
• Yardeni research sees Dow Jones DJI at 60k and SPX at 8k by 2030
• Mester’s comments yesterday:
• 3 rate cuts this year is no longer appropriate.
• April CPI was good, but too soon to say what path inflation is on. She said she doesnt think about rate cuts in terms of when. We can raise rates but its not base case. That’s bearish, but also unrealistic. I think there’s less risk now that we are too restrictive, and inflation risks are to upside.
• BEARISH COMMENTS FROM MESTER OVERALL
• Jefferson’s Comments yesterday:
• April inflation was encouraging. Labour market coming into better balance. Inflation decline isn’t as fast as we had liked. Policy is restrictive. - NEUTRAL comments, I’d say.
• Following these comments, Bank of America said that whilst the bar for rate hikes is still v high, rate cuts are still far off. Said Services inflation still running way above target.
• Bank of America believes markets got excited at the print, said markets pricing 50bps of cuts are likely to get disappointed.
• Did push back on stagflation narrative.
• SPACEX Q1 launch report shows that SpaceX is now launching 87% of all payload to orbit, a new record high.
• New Yorkers on average earned $89K last year, meaning that without spending more than 30% of annual income on rent, they can afford $2,216 on housing. That’s only enough to afford 4.4% of rentals.
• Marko Kolanovic held his bearish outlook on stocks, urging clients not to buy. So not all bears are capitulating.
• Fidelity ethereal fund says that the trust’s Ether will not be staked.
• IMF official expects next stage for BOE is to ease rates, says UK monetary policy is at inflection point. Actions by UK authorities are paying off.
• Said BoE should cut rates by 50-75bps in 2024.
• Upgraded UK growth forecast to 0.7% this year from 0.5% previously
• Dubai Airport expects record passenger traffic this year, set to top 100M by 2027.

I don't know if "Hinduphobic" is the correct term here, so I apologize if that's the case. The point I am trying to make is that these films lean heavily in the direction of targetting one specific religion to get a general point across, that religious practices should be questioned. I urge you to keep an open mind when reading my views.
Now, before you call me an andhbhakt. Let me tell you that I am not a Hindu, I am not oriented towards any political party, and I do not wish to incite hate. But I do want to incite debate.
Growing up, I enjoyed and supported these films because I thought them to be thought provoking, something they still are. My perspective changed when it occurred to me that even though these films are satires on religion, they are mostly a satire on Hindu religion. These films spend only 10% of their runtime questioning other religions' rituals and traditions, and about 90% of their runtime questioning Hinduism.
And these films portray the inconsistencies in Hindu culture in ways they wouldn't even attempt with other religions. Like take this scene from PK where a man dressed as Lord Shiva runs from fear. On one hand, we can argue that it is not ridiculing Lord Shiva, but the not-so-spiritual human wearing his disguise. But, can you imagine Bollywood filmmakers filming a similar scene depicting a Muslim or Sikh religious figure?
There's some arguments that I have heard against the presence of Hinduphobia in PK and OMG. I will now list them and explain why they don't work.

1. "It doesn't matter who is being targeted more, what matters is that people should not be religious fools no matter the religion."

= Let's take an example. Let's say you work in a company with 3 other people and your boss has given you a task. You and your team fail the task, so the boss comes in and berates you. The catch is that he only scolds the other 3 employees 5% each, and explodes the rest of 85% of his frustration and anger on you. Wouldn't that be unfair? You'd be hurt, humiliated, angry. So the next day, you visit your boss and demand justice, but your boss then tells you, "it doesn't matter who was targeted more, what matters is that all 4 of you are accountable for the failure." Would you call this a fair judgement?

1. "The reason they target Hinduism more is because the filmmakers themselves are Hindus and hence they are more familiar with the problems within their own religion. They focus on the religion that they better understand to advocate against misuse of religion."

= Let's take another example. We all know that bullying is bad. A variety of people can be bullies and a variety of people can be bullied. But let's say that I was bullied by a black person in the past, so I make a movie about bullying but 90% of the time I just berate black people. And when I am called a racist, I just say, "The reason I targeted the black community more is because I too was bullied by a black person and hence I am more familiar with what what it feels like when a black person bullies you. Don't focus on that, focus on the fact that I am advocating against bullying."
No. Just because a filmmaker is more familiar with one religion, it does not give them the right to target one community to promote a general message. All religions have problems and a filmmaker should familiarize them with all religions before making such films.

ANALYSIS section will be posted separately on my sub Tradingedge
DATA LEDE:

• RBA minutes - Australia
• Said they will try not to excessively fine tune policy
• Future changes to cash rate are difficult to rule in or out
• CPI short term variation can be easily and reasonably overlooked
• Recent data does point to slightly increased inflation risks
• NEUTRAL/HAWKISH overall
• Australia consumer confidence numbers drop 0.3% MOM
• German PPI came 0.2% MOM vs 0.2% expected, in line with last months reading.
• YOY came in at -3.3% slightly below expected value of -3.2%. Came in light which is good for German inflation picture.
• Yellen Speech - no real meaningful comments
• EU balance of trade numbers hit a new yearly high. Points to improving world demand environment.
• Fed speakers include:
• Barkin, Waller, Williams, Bostic, Barr
• BoE’s Bailey to speak too

MARKETS:

• SPX: Maintained above 5300, now trading at 5311. Yesterday, touched 5325, before moving lower again. DJI: Trading at 39,813, just below 40k. Opened yesterday above 40k but moved lower on JPM weakness.
• Nasdaq: trading flat at 18,665. Support will now be at around 18,350.
• Ger40: Slightly lower today, at 18,600. Some slight profit taking near the highs.
• HKG50: Moving lower again for 2nd day in a row. Now at 19,240. Yesterday, was at 19,750 at one point. So down 2.7% across yesterday and today.
• Oil - hit 80 yesterday on WTI but was rejected off there. Lower today to 78, down by 1.5%. Back to range bound.
• Gold: Trading at 2418, Support at 2400.
• VIX: After getting crushed to 12 yesterday, bounced up off of there, now higher.

FX:

• DXY moving flat today and yesterday, around 104.5
• Had fallen to 100d moving average after CPI then moved higher, bouncing from there.
• EURUSD positioning still bullish, flat, slightly higher at 1.087
• GBPUSD moving higher again, trading at 1.272
• AUDUSD at 0.667,
• Has broken out of the long term downtrend.

EARNINGS:

• PANW Current Quarter:
• Revenues of 1.985B beat by 0.8%. Revenues rose 15% YOY
• Products revenue beat by 1.2%
• Subscriptions and support revenue beat by 0.3%
• EPS of 1.32 Beat expectations of 1.25 - beat by 5.6%
• Operating income was 508M, beat by 3.5%
• Operating margin was 25.6% , beat by 69 bps
• Billings came more or less in line
• Deferred revenue basically in line, slight miss.
• NEXT QUARTER GUIDANCE:
• EPS of 1.41 v slightly missed expectations of 1.42
• Revenue came in line with consensus at 2.16B
• Billings guidance beat consensus v slightly.
• FULL YEAR GUIDANCE:
• EPS of 5.56-5.58 beat estimates of 5.51
• Revenue of 8B beat estimates of 7.98B
• Billings of 10.15.5B was up 10-11% YoY
• CEO Nikesh Arora: Enthusiastic response to pjatformization and AI infused security outcomes.
• In conference call said that billings isn’t the only important measure, hence investors should overlook the slight softness in billings.
• Said cybersecurity demand will continue to grow for next several quarters, and PANW will benefit.
• Cyberattacks are scaling and aren’t going away. AI will increase these threats. So the tailwinds for PANW are very strong.

XPEV

• EPS of -0.75 was much better than the -2.06 expected
• Revenue of 6.55B beat estimates of 6.19B. Up 63% YOY, but down 50% QOQ
• Vehicle margin was 5.5%, which was up from 4.1% last quarter, and up form -2.5% last year SO VEHICLE MARGIN IMPROVED
• Vehicle sales came in at 5.54B yuan, up 50% YOY but down 50% QOQ
• Gross margin was 12.9%, up from 1.7% last year and 6.2% last quarter
• SO MARGINS IMPROVED, SALES WERE WORSE THAN LAST QUARTER
• In April saw 9,393 vehicles delivered
• Partnership with Volkswagen group on E/E architecture
• Release of AI powered functions
• GROSS MARGIN IMPROVEMENT DESPITE COMPETITION AND OTHERS CUTTING PRICES WAS A KEY BENEFIT.

NEXT QUARTER GUDIANCE:

• Revenue 7.5-8.3B miss by 15%
• Delivered of 29-32K. Up 30% YOY

MACYS:

• Current quarter:
• ADJ EPS $0.27 vs. $0.56 y/y, EST $0.14. BEAT
• EPS $0.22 vs. $0.56 y/y
• Net sales $4.8B, -3.7% y/y, EST $4.81B. IN LINE
• Gross margin 39.2% vs. 40% y/y, EST 39.6%. MISS
• SG&A expense $1.9B, -2.6% y/y, EST $1.98B. MISS
• GUIDANCE:
• Raised guidance from 2.45-2.85 to 2.55-2.9.
• Raised by 4%
• Beat estimates by 4%, although is a wide guidance
• Sees Net sales at 22.3-22.9B, raising bottom end up slightly from 22.2B.
• More or less in line with guidance.
• Merchandise margins down 100bps due to additional discounting
• Merchandise inventories are well positioned for upcoming summer season
• Credit card revenues down slightly due to higher delinquency rates
• Turnaround plan showing signs of progress as they beat and raise guidance.

LOWES:

• Current quarter:
• EPS of 3.67 beat estimates of 2.95
• Revenue of 21.4B was down YOY by 4%, but beat estimates by 1.3%
• Comparables sales were down 4%
• Reaffirms FY guidance:
• EPS of 12-12.3 vs estimate of 12.19. So miss slightly by 0.4%
• Revenue of 84-85B, basically in line.
• EXPECTS COMPARABLE SALES TO BE DOWN 2-3% vs estimates of 2.43% down.

MAG 7:

• MSFT yesterday, said that Copilot Plus PCs will be based on Qualcomm’s snapdragon X Elite chips, and will offer 15 hours of web browsing and 20 hours of video battery life. MSFT says it’ll outperform MacBook Air.
• On Copilot Plus, Neural processor enables new AI features such as recall for a searchable PC memory.
• MSFT estimates 50 million AI PCs will be sold over the next year. Said its rearchitectured Windows 11 is 58% faster than Apple’s MacBook Air.
• MSFT - restructures Windows 11 for better ARM hardware support and AI integration. Introduces prism emulator, launched to improve compatibility with older x86 and x64 apps. MSFT says Prism emulator is 20% faster than previous versions.
• AAPL - Files law suit to overturn $1.8B EU antitrust fine over App Store rules. AAPL is challenging a 1.8B fine.
• MSFT - OpenAI will be sued by Scarlett Johansson for basically copying her voice against her explicit instruction not to.
• TSLA - Tesla shareholder group still not happy with Elon Musk’s $56B pay package. Urged other investors to reject a $56B pay package.

OTHER COMPANIES:

• XPEV higher on their strong earnings
• MACYS higher on improving picture
• LOW - higher on earnings
• Crypto stocks higher on strong Bitcoin performance
• LRCX 10-1 stock split
• PANW lower on eanrings, seems harsh to me. Other crypto names down in sentiment.
• Chinese stocks lower as Hong Kong MARKET down 1.5% today.
• NOVA - Piper Sandler downgrades Sunnova Energy to neutral from overweight, lowered price target to 4.50 from 9. Analyst had upgraded sun nova in December on expectation of lower rates, but rates have stayed high.
• Li - postpones the launch of its all electric SUVs to the first half of 2025, citing inadequate charging stations and other constraints. CEO emphasised the need for sufficient branded charging stations and more display spots.
• DOWN 4% AGAIN TODAY ON THIS.
• BABA - Alibaba cloud slashes prices for its latest LLM model, Tongyi Qianwen, by up to 97%
• BIDU - in response to Alibaba’s move, BIDU made its ENITRE Speed and ENIRE lite models entirely free to use.
• So we are seeing price wars in AI market.
• JPM says that they will not be increasing buybacks of JPM stock at these prices. Will just continue with previously outlined buyback pace.
• Jamie Dimon also hinted at retirement in the speech, hence JPM lower yesterday
• DELL - Citi raises dell price target to 170 from 125. Optimistic they can gain market share more in AI.
• JD - announces a proposed offering of $1.5B in convertible senior notes, due 2029. Will use proceeds to repurchase shares and expand overseas business.
• PTON - plans global refinancing to address debt. Secured nearly $1.4B in new credit facilities.
• ASML and TSM said they have measures in place to remotely disable advanced EUV chip making machines if China was to invade Taiwan.
• QCOM - shares were higher yesterday after Several big companies including Dell and MSFT announced AI laptops using Qualcomm’s snapdragon X elite chip. MSFT says these devices will outperform apple MacBook Air M3.
• ARM - MSFT will announce Arm powered laptops
• WEN - launches a $3 breakfast deal, including small seasoned potatoes, choice of bacon, eggs and cheese or sausage, eggs and cheese muffin. Rivals Mcdonalds $5value meal
• DASH - expanded its partnership with ULTA beauty to offer on demand delivery in under an hour from 1350 stores across all 50 states.
• VFS - US regulators are probing a vin fast VF 8 Crash, that killed 4 in California.
• LLY - secures china approval for diabetes drug, Tirzepatide. Received approval in China for its diabetes drug.
• BA - one killed on Singapore Airlines Boeing 777 due to severe turbulence.
• DIS - Redburn upgrades to neutral from Sell. Price target 100.
• Samsung - appoints new chief for its chip business, amid competition.

OThER NEWS:

• BTC higher to 72K.
• ETH popped 20% yesterday on renewed optimism for ETF, that SEC might green light spot ether ETFs ahead of first deadline later this week.
• Yardeni research sees Dow Jones DJI at 60k and SPX at 8k by 2030
• Mester’s comments yesterday:
• 3 rate cuts this year is no longer appropriate.
• April CPI was good, but too soon to say what path inflation is on. She said she doesnt think about rate cuts in terms of when. We can raise rates but its not base case. That’s bearish, but also unrealistic. I think there’s less risk now that we are too restrictive, and inflation risks are to upside.
• BEARISH COMMENTS FROM MESTER OVERALL
• Jefferson’s Comments yesterday:
• April inflation was encouraging. Labour market coming into better balance. Inflation decline isn’t as fast as we had liked. Policy is restrictive. - NEUTRAL comments, I’d say.
• Following these comments, Bank of America said that whilst the bar for rate hikes is still v high, rate cuts are still far off. Said Services inflation still running way above target.
• Bank of America believes markets got excited at the print, said markets pricing 50bps of cuts are likely to get disappointed.
• Did push back on stagflation narrative.
• SPACEX Q1 launch report shows that SpaceX is now launching 87% of all payload to orbit, a new record high.
• New Yorkers on average earned $89K last year, meaning that without spending more than 30% of annual income on rent, they can afford $2,216 on housing. That’s only enough to afford 4.4% of rentals.
• Marko Kolanovic held his bearish outlook on stocks, urging clients not to buy. So not all bears are capitulating.
• Fidelity ethereal fund says that the trust’s Ether will not be staked.
• IMF official expects next stage for BOE is to ease rates, says UK monetary policy is at inflection point. Actions by UK authorities are paying off.
• Said BoE should cut rates by 50-75bps in 2024.
• Upgraded UK growth forecast to 0.7% this year from 0.5% previously
• Dubai Airport expects record passenger traffic this year, set to top 100M by 2027.

For more of my content, please join Tradingedge

I'm a 17-year-old male from Mumbai, and I hate myself. My ego was sky-high, and I finally got humbled hard today. I decided to prepare for JEE immediately after my 10th examination, for which I worked very hard (I got 92% in my SSC examination). I dove in headfirst for my JEE preparation and joined a coaching center near my house. It was the worst decision I ever made. The faculty were irresponsible, the teachers were terrible, and the weekly tests weren't even according to the JEE pattern, with multiple errors in the questions. Unfortunately, I was too busy flexing my 10th board marks to realize this. Saying I was overconfident would be an understatement. I genuinely thought I would get into IITB. Time went by, and I wasted my first year (11th grade). I paid attention during lectures and made class notes, but I didn't revise them after coming home and didn't practice enough questions.
My second year started, and one day I realized that I was wasting the most important year of my life. From that day, everything changed for me. I deactivated my Instagram account (which was my only and major distraction), completely cut myself off from the outside world, and literally stopped talking to my friends. I didn't leave my house at all! I was studying 24/7. My mother used to feed me breakfast, lunch, and dinner while I studied. Six months went by like this, and by October, I was scoring the highest in my coaching. This just fed my ego. My parents told me to register for MHCET, VITEEE, and other entrance examinations, but I brushed them off, saying, "These are too easy for me. I won't give an exam with a lower difficulty than JEE." By the end of November, I was completely burnt out. COMPLETELY! I couldn't even get myself to look at the pile of books in my room. I was repelled by them. It was the weirdest feeling ever. I used to study for 16+ hours a day, and then I couldn't even sit to study for 20 minutes.
The first attempt was less than 40 days away. Before I knew it, time flew by, and it was the night before my first attempt. I knew deep down that I was going to mess it up. I tried to revise whatever I could—short notes, books, test analyses all lying around me while I looked like a pale corpse. What was I even thinking? There was no way I could revise more than 90 chapters in just a few hours. I gave up at 3 a.m. and cried myself to sleep. My shift was in the evening. After my exam, I told my mother I messed up in math and not to ask anything about it until the results came out. I was exhausted—not for just a day or week, but for months. Fast-forwarding a month later, the results came out. As expected, they were absolutely garbage. 80.5 percentile... hmm. I felt my throat going dry, my mother saying, "You should've worked harder." I was miserable, but there was no time to contemplate. The HSC board exam was less than a month away. I had no will to study at all but fought through it somehow. Looking back now, I feel that preparing for boards right after JEE was much more difficult than JEE itself. A month of sleepless nights went by, and the days of the board exams arrived. The papers themselves were easier than what I had expected—or so I thought. I came home every day after the paper saying, "I'll definitely get above 90 in this."
I had registered for JEE's second attempt as well, but even the thought of giving JEE again scared me. It has been three months after the boards now, and I'm at the lowest point of my life. I have no friends at all since I cut them off completely. I rot in my room each day. These three months have been hell. I'm incredibly lonely. To make matters worse, the HSC board scorecard dropped today, and I got 74.8%. Absolutely embarrassing. For months, actually a year, I made an impression of myself as being smart, intelligent, and studious. I'm ashamed to show my face to my family members. I can't show my face to my friends. I'm a failure. I can't take BITSAT and many other exams since they have a 75% criterion. I didn't register for CET, thinking it would be "too easy" for me. Even my father, who was okay with me scoring less in JEE, is really mad at me. He refrained me from taking a drop year. Even if I took a drop year, what would I do? All my dreams and ambitions of going to a good college are slowly fading away. I totally deserve this for being unrealistic and cocky. I hope karma takes pity on me.

ANALYSIS section will be posted separately on my sub Tradingedge
DATA LEDE:

• RBA minutes - Australia
• Said they will try not to excessively fine tune policy
• Future changes to cash rate are difficult to rule in or out
• CPI short term variation can be easily and reasonably overlooked
• Recent data does point to slightly increased inflation risks
• NEUTRAL/HAWKISH overall
• Australia consumer confidence numbers drop 0.3% MOM
• German PPI came 0.2% MOM vs 0.2% expected, in line with last months reading.
• YOY came in at -3.3% slightly below expected value of -3.2%. Came in light which is good for German inflation picture.
• Yellen Speech - no real meaningful comments
• EU balance of trade numbers hit a new yearly high. Points to improving world demand environment.
• Fed speakers include:
• Barkin, Waller, Williams, Bostic, Barr
• BoE’s Bailey to speak too

MARKETS:

• SPX: Maintained above 5300, now trading at 5311. Yesterday, touched 5325, before moving lower again. DJI: Trading at 39,813, just below 40k. Opened yesterday above 40k but moved lower on JPM weakness.
• Nasdaq: trading flat at 18,665. Support will now be at around 18,350.
• Ger40: Slightly lower today, at 18,600. Some slight profit taking near the highs.
• HKG50: Moving lower again for 2nd day in a row. Now at 19,240. Yesterday, was at 19,750 at one point. So down 2.7% across yesterday and today.
• Oil - hit 80 yesterday on WTI but was rejected off there. Lower today to 78, down by 1.5%. Back to range bound.
• Gold: Trading at 2418, Support at 2400.
• VIX: After getting crushed to 12 yesterday, bounced up off of there, now higher.

FX:

• DXY moving flat today and yesterday, around 104.5
• Had fallen to 100d moving average after CPI then moved higher, bouncing from there.
• EURUSD positioning still bullish, flat, slightly higher at 1.087
• GBPUSD moving higher again, trading at 1.272
• AUDUSD at 0.667,
• Has broken out of the long term downtrend.

EARNINGS:

• PANW Current Quarter:
• Revenues of 1.985B beat by 0.8%. Revenues rose 15% YOY
• Products revenue beat by 1.2%
• Subscriptions and support revenue beat by 0.3%
• EPS of 1.32 Beat expectations of 1.25 - beat by 5.6%
• Operating income was 508M, beat by 3.5%
• Operating margin was 25.6% , beat by 69 bps
• Billings came more or less in line
• Deferred revenue basically in line, slight miss.
• NEXT QUARTER GUIDANCE:
• EPS of 1.41 v slightly missed expectations of 1.42
• Revenue came in line with consensus at 2.16B
• Billings guidance beat consensus v slightly.
• FULL YEAR GUIDANCE:
• EPS of 5.56-5.58 beat estimates of 5.51
• Revenue of 8B beat estimates of 7.98B
• Billings of 10.15.5B was up 10-11% YoY
• CEO Nikesh Arora: Enthusiastic response to pjatformization and AI infused security outcomes.
• In conference call said that billings isn’t the only important measure, hence investors should overlook the slight softness in billings.
• Said cybersecurity demand will continue to grow for next several quarters, and PANW will benefit.
• Cyberattacks are scaling and aren’t going away. AI will increase these threats. So the tailwinds for PANW are very strong.

XPEV

• EPS of -0.75 was much better than the -2.06 expected
• Revenue of 6.55B beat estimates of 6.19B. Up 63% YOY, but down 50% QOQ
• Vehicle margin was 5.5%, which was up from 4.1% last quarter, and up form -2.5% last year SO VEHICLE MARGIN IMPROVED
• Vehicle sales came in at 5.54B yuan, up 50% YOY but down 50% QOQ
• Gross margin was 12.9%, up from 1.7% last year and 6.2% last quarter
• SO MARGINS IMPROVED, SALES WERE WORSE THAN LAST QUARTER
• In April saw 9,393 vehicles delivered
• Partnership with Volkswagen group on E/E architecture
• Release of AI powered functions
• GROSS MARGIN IMPROVEMENT DESPITE COMPETITION AND OTHERS CUTTING PRICES WAS A KEY BENEFIT.

NEXT QUARTER GUDIANCE:

• Revenue 7.5-8.3B miss by 15%
• Delivered of 29-32K. Up 30% YOY

MACYS:

• Current quarter:
• ADJ EPS $0.27 vs. $0.56 y/y, EST $0.14. BEAT
• EPS $0.22 vs. $0.56 y/y
• Net sales $4.8B, -3.7% y/y, EST $4.81B. IN LINE
• Gross margin 39.2% vs. 40% y/y, EST 39.6%. MISS
• SG&A expense $1.9B, -2.6% y/y, EST $1.98B. MISS
• GUIDANCE:
• Raised guidance from 2.45-2.85 to 2.55-2.9.
• Raised by 4%
• Beat estimates by 4%, although is a wide guidance
• Sees Net sales at 22.3-22.9B, raising bottom end up slightly from 22.2B.
• More or less in line with guidance.
• Merchandise margins down 100bps due to additional discounting
• Merchandise inventories are well positioned for upcoming summer season
• Credit card revenues down slightly due to higher delinquency rates
• Turnaround plan showing signs of progress as they beat and raise guidance.

LOWES:

• Current quarter:
• EPS of 3.67 beat estimates of 2.95
• Revenue of 21.4B was down YOY by 4%, but beat estimates by 1.3%
• Comparables sales were down 4%
• Reaffirms FY guidance:
• EPS of 12-12.3 vs estimate of 12.19. So miss slightly by 0.4%
• Revenue of 84-85B, basically in line.
• EXPECTS COMPARABLE SALES TO BE DOWN 2-3% vs estimates of 2.43% down.

MAG 7:

• MSFT yesterday, said that Copilot Plus PCs will be based on Qualcomm’s snapdragon X Elite chips, and will offer 15 hours of web browsing and 20 hours of video battery life. MSFT says it’ll outperform MacBook Air.
• On Copilot Plus, Neural processor enables new AI features such as recall for a searchable PC memory.
• MSFT estimates 50 million AI PCs will be sold over the next year. Said its rearchitectured Windows 11 is 58% faster than Apple’s MacBook Air.
• MSFT - restructures Windows 11 for better ARM hardware support and AI integration. Introduces prism emulator, launched to improve compatibility with older x86 and x64 apps. MSFT says Prism emulator is 20% faster than previous versions.
• AAPL - Files law suit to overturn $1.8B EU antitrust fine over App Store rules. AAPL is challenging a 1.8B fine.
• MSFT - OpenAI will be sued by Scarlett Johansson for basically copying her voice against her explicit instruction not to.
• TSLA - Tesla shareholder group still not happy with Elon Musk’s $56B pay package. Urged other investors to reject a $56B pay package.

OTHER COMPANIES:

• XPEV higher on their strong earnings
• MACYS higher on improving picture
• LOW - higher on earnings
• Crypto stocks higher on strong Bitcoin performance
• LRCX 10-1 stock split
• PANW lower on eanrings, seems harsh to me. Other crypto names down in sentiment.
• Chinese stocks lower as Hong Kong MARKET down 1.5% today.
• NOVA - Piper Sandler downgrades Sunnova Energy to neutral from overweight, lowered price target to 4.50 from 9. Analyst had upgraded sun nova in December on expectation of lower rates, but rates have stayed high.
• Li - postpones the launch of its all electric SUVs to the first half of 2025, citing inadequate charging stations and other constraints. CEO emphasised the need for sufficient branded charging stations and more display spots.
• DOWN 4% AGAIN TODAY ON THIS.
• BABA - Alibaba cloud slashes prices for its latest LLM model, Tongyi Qianwen, by up to 97%
• BIDU - in response to Alibaba’s move, BIDU made its ENITRE Speed and ENIRE lite models entirely free to use.
• So we are seeing price wars in AI market.
• JPM says that they will not be increasing buybacks of JPM stock at these prices. Will just continue with previously outlined buyback pace.
• Jamie Dimon also hinted at retirement in the speech, hence JPM lower yesterday
• DELL - Citi raises dell price target to 170 from 125. Optimistic they can gain market share more in AI.
• JD - announces a proposed offering of $1.5B in convertible senior notes, due 2029. Will use proceeds to repurchase shares and expand overseas business.
• PTON - plans global refinancing to address debt. Secured nearly $1.4B in new credit facilities.
• ASML and TSM said they have measures in place to remotely disable advanced EUV chip making machines if China was to invade Taiwan.
• QCOM - shares were higher yesterday after Several big companies including Dell and MSFT announced AI laptops using Qualcomm’s snapdragon X elite chip. MSFT says these devices will outperform apple MacBook Air M3.
• ARM - MSFT will announce Arm powered laptops
• WEN - launches a $3 breakfast deal, including small seasoned potatoes, choice of bacon, eggs and cheese or sausage, eggs and cheese muffin. Rivals Mcdonalds $5value meal
• DASH - expanded its partnership with ULTA beauty to offer on demand delivery in under an hour from 1350 stores across all 50 states.
• VFS - US regulators are probing a vin fast VF 8 Crash, that killed 4 in California.
• LLY - secures china approval for diabetes drug, Tirzepatide. Received approval in China for its diabetes drug.
• BA - one killed on Singapore Airlines Boeing 777 due to severe turbulence.
• DIS - Redburn upgrades to neutral from Sell. Price target 100.
• Samsung - appoints new chief for its chip business, amid competition.

OThER NEWS:

• BTC higher to 72K.
• ETH popped 20% yesterday on renewed optimism for ETF, that SEC might green light spot ether ETFs ahead of first deadline later this week.
• Yardeni research sees Dow Jones DJI at 60k and SPX at 8k by 2030
• Mester’s comments yesterday:
• 3 rate cuts this year is no longer appropriate.
• April CPI was good, but too soon to say what path inflation is on. She said she doesnt think about rate cuts in terms of when. We can raise rates but its not base case. That’s bearish, but also unrealistic. I think there’s less risk now that we are too restrictive, and inflation risks are to upside.
• BEARISH COMMENTS FROM MESTER OVERALL
• Jefferson’s Comments yesterday:
• April inflation was encouraging. Labour market coming into better balance. Inflation decline isn’t as fast as we had liked. Policy is restrictive. - NEUTRAL comments, I’d say.
• Following these comments, Bank of America said that whilst the bar for rate hikes is still v high, rate cuts are still far off. Said Services inflation still running way above target.
• Bank of America believes markets got excited at the print, said markets pricing 50bps of cuts are likely to get disappointed.
• Did push back on stagflation narrative.
• SPACEX Q1 launch report shows that SpaceX is now launching 87% of all payload to orbit, a new record high.
• New Yorkers on average earned $89K last year, meaning that without spending more than 30% of annual income on rent, they can afford $2,216 on housing. That’s only enough to afford 4.4% of rentals.
• Marko Kolanovic held his bearish outlook on stocks, urging clients not to buy. So not all bears are capitulating.
• Fidelity ethereal fund says that the trust’s Ether will not be staked.
• IMF official expects next stage for BOE is to ease rates, says UK monetary policy is at inflection point. Actions by UK authorities are paying off.
• Said BoE should cut rates by 50-75bps in 2024.
• Upgraded UK growth forecast to 0.7% this year from 0.5% previously
• Dubai Airport expects record passenger traffic this year, set to top 100M by 2027.

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I feel very alone and I hate it. Recently my gf broke off our 4 year relationship and since then I feel this weight on me even though I should be feeling free I’m very young and have a future ahead of me but this seems to be holding me back bc it’s always in the back of my mind and ruining my days. I question myself every other minute is she is happy w someone else or is she hooking up w guys to move on she doesn’t seem like the kind of person to do that but y wouldn’t she she’s the most beautiful person I’ve seen w my eyes it doesn’t make sense to me for her to just be alone. But that shouldn’t bother me and I don’t want it to bc she isn’t mine anymore and I have blocked her on everything she can contact me on but still when I leave the house I think abt seeing her for a glimpse of a second and I get this mixed feeling of missing her and hating her bc what she did to me.
The point I’m trying to make is I miss having a person and a person having me I’ve never been this alone I have a 3 friends who I talk to and I feel like a loser on a daily basis. How do I get over this feeling of loneliness and live my life without thinking abt someone who doesn’t spend anytime thinking abt me anymore. I want to get her out of my head so she can stop having my life in a chokehold. How do I avoid overthinking and caring what a person does that I have no friendship or relationship w and how do I become a less lonely person or a person who is happy being alone. The price of freedom is loneliness but I don’t want to keep living like this.
Any tips that have helped you guys or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Okay so here's what we know about the Sandra Lynn situation
~ She's been doing work in the mountains of chaos relocating animals assumed to be infected by rage stars
~ Adaine told her about a lot of things going on
~ She left the kids alone for a while during their time in the temple of Ankarna
~ She said that she was going to get adults involved in the situation before they left the mountains of chaos
~ Baxter, who I don't think we've ever seen without Sandra Lynn was seen by the party by himself (only on a nat 20, which means that he was hard to spot)
~ Ragh and Jawbone (Brennan) made a point of saying they wanted to check on Mordred Manor and they haven't been back since.
So with all of this in mind, what do you guys think is going on at Mordred and specifically with Sandra Lynn? Just looking at it once makes it seem like a loose end, but we know BLeeM absolutely does not leave loose ends (see Barbarian healing).

If it can be rendered at all plausible, I'd like write a story where part of the premise of the setting is, humanity still exists in some form billions of years in the future, perhaps as late as the time our sun is going to die -- but never managed to make it out of the solar system nor make contact or find any traces of the existence of any extraterrestrial life at all.
To that end I'm trying to brainstorm all the things, known or speculative, that would make it so difficult-to-impossible.
Distances, energy requirements, interstellar conditions (which I don't know much about), communication issues, and so on.
I originally wanted to have it be we didn't even get off earth (and hence only survived to a point where it got too hot) but I wasn't sure I could make it plausibe that we don't even colonize any other planet in the solar system. But maybe that can work! (I'd actually love it if it could.)
Well, that's what I'm thinking about, I'm just curious about any thoughts or ideas others might have as to what sorts of factors might have made these things turn out to be practically impossible even after billions of years, while humanity nevertheless still does manage to survive.

Hi y'all. I'm nearing the point where I have enough students that I could conceivably support myself solely through teaching. I reckon I'm about 3 months out from quitting my office job. As I prepare for this, I had some questions about how you manage.... well everything else about this life!

• What do you do during the day while most children are in school? I guess there are some home-schoolers one could pick up. Do you do anything to bring in extra cash, or just use this as your time off to relax?
  
• What about your social life? You're free while most people are working and vice versa, so I'd imagine things would get a lot harder. How do you make time for the important people in your life and make new connections with this schedule?
  

I guess that's all that's top-of-mind right now, but I'd love to hear more about things you wish you'd thought of in this vein as well!

I have devised this thread as some guidance for those people who have visited this forum and are concerned about specific symptoms that are effecting them and, in particular, those who are worried that these symptoms are an indication of neurological conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) & Motor Neurone Disease (MND).
The first thing that must be realised is that NOBODY on an internet forum can ever diagnose you or truly give you any reassurance that you do not have these conditions. Should anybody experience any signs or symptoms that are new to them they should ALWAYS approach their doctor in the first instance in order for these to be examined. In the vast majority of cases a GP will be able to advise you that these symptoms are benign but some doctors will often refer you to a neurologist for their opinion, if this should happen it is not value laden as regarding a possible diagnosis but rather would be the standard format for how you present to the doctor.
This thread is good news, it is good news because it has had to be written, it is good news because hundreds, maybe thousands of people have logged onto this board and countless other anxiety forums totally convinced that they are suffering from a neurological condition despite being told by health care profesionals that this is not the case. All these people ask the same questions and all these people have the exact same worries as you are having now. If this is you, if you have been to the doctor, maybe even a neuro, maybe even two neuro’s, maybe even had an MRI, maybe even two MRI’s, well, you get the picture, if you have been told by your health care profesional that you are healthy but you are struggling to believe this you may find some help from this thread.
So, you have come to an anxiety board. I guess that is because your doctor has told you that you are suffering from anxiety. Actually, my guess would be that your doctor has told you that you are suffering from ‘just’ anxiety and, if you are lucky, you may have been given some leaflets, you may have had some books recommended and you may even have been given some medication.
So, what took you to the doctor? Was it the tingling? The pins & needles? That damned annoying twitching eyelid that just won’t let up? Was it that weird thing when you keep seeing the flashing in your periphiral vision? The strange sensation in your throat where you just can’t swallow? The constant muscle aches and cramps? The constant small joint aches and cramps? Do you have that weird internal vibrating feeling? Was it the percieved weakness in all your major limbs? What about the foot drop you have been noticing, the clumsiness, finding the car keys in the fridge? Was it the chronic constant fatigue, that feeling when you wake in the morning like you haven’t actually gone to bed? What about the myclonic jerking, that bizarre moment when your whole body jerks like you have had an electric shock? Was it that constant twitching in your calf muscles that looks like you have a bag of worms under your skin? It could have been the parathesia, the feeling on your skin where one moment it feels sunburnt and the next minute it feels soaking wet? Maybe it was the atrophy, you know, the muscle loss in your bicep, your thigh that is so obvious to you but what frustratingly nobody else can see? What about………are you bored? I’m bored!
So, you have had some of those right? Maybe like me you are unlucky enough to have had every one of them…not much fun is it! When you first started getting these weird and wonderful symptoms cropping up I bet one of the first things you did was run off to the all powerful internet and consult that all knowing oracle, the good lord GOOGLE. If you did this, if you searched for your symptoms on a search engine on the internet, congratualtions, you have taken the first step on developing this weird and wonderful anxiety disorder known as Health Anxiety. The reason we Google is because of a basic human need at a time of stress, we are scared and we want reassurance, the problem is nothing you ever read on the internet will give you the reassurance you need, you will unwittingly discard the plethora of evidence that tells you that you do not have a neurological illness and instead will latch onto and inflate those things which seem ambigous, why would you do this? I suggest that at this point it may be adavantagous for you to look in the Genaralized Anxiety Disorder folder on this forum and see the negative thought processes and over generalization and catastrophising that defines GAD, it just may ring some bells for you.
So, by the time you have gone to the doctor you are pretty much resigned to the fact that it is MS or if you are really unlucky ALS. You picture yourself in a wheelchair, the kids looking at you with pity as you can’t play sports in the park with them anymore, you picture your partner standing by you and caring for you but all the while you feel the resentment, they never signed up for this, you picture the scene in four years time, confined to a hospital bed with your family and friends round you with the fruit and flowers…..BUT WAIT!
Oh joyous news, the doctor has said you don’t have MS, you don’t have ALS, what you have is anxiety, well, just anxiety….oh believe me there is a BIG difference. You have got out of jail free! The doctor has examind you thoroughly, he has taken your history, he knows the patterns, he has seen people with MS and ALS and you are not one of those. With a skip and a step you are on your way, same time next year doctor, yep, no worries…so with a happy heart and an increased vigour you are off out of the surgery door to continue with your life that had been on hold up to then. MS, ALS how could you be so silly eh?
…and then it begins! Right, the doctor said this is anxiety, I’m not anxious though, why do I still have these symptoms if I’m not anxious….something just isn’t right here. The more you think about it the more it seems obvious, hold on, I saw the doctor on Friday afternoon, I bet he was just thinking about the weekend and wanted to get rid of me. I’m sure that the doctor should have done more tests than he did you know, crikey, I’m sure when I told him the numbness was down just the one side he didn’t listen to that, that bit is crucial and he never heard it. Hold on, this freakin eye twitch is getting even worse and I’m not even anxious, where is the telephone? What is that doctors number?……welcome to the loop!
If any of the above seems familier to you, believe me, you are not alone…as strange as it may seem the fixation on being convinced you have a neurological condition after being told that you are in actual fact suffering from anxiety in very common.
Firstly, you need to realise that both MS and ALS are rare disease’s. Not only are they both rare disease’s but they also tend to effect spefic groups based on ethnicity, age and sex so we are talking about rare disease with partial excluding factors. In contrast, anxiety is an incredibly common and debilitating condtion that effects people both physically and mentally.
Anxiety is generally percieved to be a mental condition, when we are anxious we are anxious in our head and this can kick in the flight or fight syndrome which in turn causes the physical reactions. These reactions are generally thought to be a racing heart and palpitations, sweating, increased adrenaline etc etc. Now, this is all well and good but how does this fit in with those symptoms that mirror MS etc so effectivly.
I personally believe that the reason most people fail to be believe that their symptoms are being genrated by anxiety is because the concept of anxiety is never actually expalined sufficently. A large number of doctors will often expalin to you that you are suffering from ‘just’ anxety and this usage of the term ‘just’ is supposed to make us somehow feel reassured. The problem is that this has the opposite effect, how can a ‘just’ something cause all these real physical symptoms. If anxiety is effecting me mentally how can it make me twitch, buzz and go numb?
For some people anxiety will surface in the tradional panic attack, much seems to be written on this side of anxiety and this is not what we are concerned with here. For a sizable group of people when anxiety starts to manifest itself physically it is through physical sesnations that effect various aspects of our nervous system. This is why the sensations of this physical anxiety so closely mirror the symptoms of a condition such as MS, they actually effect the same part of the body, now, here is the crucial and all important difference, the symptoms of MS are caused by an organic condition which whilst treatable is irreversable and the physical sensations of anxiety are caused by the mind and are of course reversable. In short, you have to understand and accept that the mind can actually generate these physical sensations.
Whilst for many people physical anxiety can strike out of the blue, I am of the opinion that for the vast majority of people anxiety starts to become physical after whay could be many years of bad stress and anxiety management. You may not have even noticed this. We all have an anxiety threshold and the majority of people will probably never approach the blow off point, yes, a sudden and severe stressor could take someone right over the point from the baseline (think Post Traumatic Stress Disorder & Conversion Disorder etc) but most of us operate at an anxiety level that our bodies can handle. The problem is that if we stress ourselves constantly over a period of time, we do not allow our thermostat to reset and one sunny day something will happen, some stressor which can be a bad or even a good event and which we may not even realise the significance of will push us over the limit and it is at this point that our anxiety will effect us physically and more often than not impact on our nervous system.
This also happens to bring us to another crucial factor and what for many is the paradox that holds us back form accepting the anxiety diagniosis, how the hell can this be anxiety when I am not anxious? It makes no sense to me! What we need to realise is that once we have crossed the anxiety threshold no matter what we do we have to surrender ourselves to our mind and body and accept that we are now operating to a timescale that WE CANNOT CONTROL! We can think we are being as cool as Fonzie but we need to accept that the damage whilst reversible has been done and it is just a case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. Our body is now in control of us and the physical sensations will only stop when our body and mind are sufficently recovered.
It is at this point where we commit the ultimate folly, do we do as the experts suggest and sit back and realx and float through this stage? Of course not, we do the total opposite, we monitor our body for every twitch and interpret this as a sign of a misdiagnosis, we become hypervigilant, paranoid, self absorbed…this behaviour just creates more and more anxiety and we do not allow our body and mind the time necessary to recover….we are, in effect, pouring gasoline on the fire and expecting it to go out.
If you read this forum you will find a variety of posts that will offer you suggestions as to why you are suffering from the physical sensations of anxiety. Some people will advocate medication, some Cognitive Behaviour Therapy etc etc but what you will realise is that there is no one right way. I am truly of the belief that recovery is all about acceptance and learning to respond to fear correctly but how we do this is very much an indvidual thing. It could well be that you have issues with GAD and you can see how patterns realting to that disorder resonate with how you currently feel about your health, for example, note how both MS and ALS are diseases with which we lose control of our bodies. It could also be that you have issues with OCD, traits such as reassurance seeking and body and symptom monitoring could suggest this. There may well be suggestions that you could be sufferring from elements of depression, there is as school of thought that believes that the mind will somatise physical sensations when there are aspects of your life that your unconcious is unhappy with etc.
I hope this has helped if you have just visited here convinced you have MS etc and you are feeling scared and confused. You may have noticed I have not mentioned anything specific about MS or ALS and that is because there is no reason to...you do not have those. Your doctor has told you you are suffering from anxiety and therefore you are in the right place. Refrain from researching about diseases you do not have and instead concentrate on dealing with what you have today. Of course, what you have today doesn’t guarantee you won’t have MS or ALS tomorrow and if that thought fills you with fear use your time here wisely and believe me, it becomes a lot more bearable.

Welcome to the fortnightly separation anxiety support group!
The mission of this post is to provide a constructive place to discuss your dog's progress and setbacks in conquering his/her separation anxiety. Feel free to post your fortnightly progress report, as well as any questions or tips you might have! We seek to provide a safe space to vent your frustrations as well, so feel free to express yourself.
We welcome both owners of dogs with separation anxiety and owners whose dogs have gotten better!
NEW TO SEPARATION ANXIETY?
New to the subject of separation anxiety? A dog with separation anxiety is one who displays stress when the one or more family members leave. Separation anxiety can vary from light stress to separation panic but at the heart of the matter is distress.
Does this sound familiar? Lucky for you, this is a pretty common problem that many dog owners struggle with. It can feel isolating and frustrating, but we are here to help!
Resources
Books
​
Don't Leave Me! Step-by-Step Help for Your Dog's Separation Anxiety by Nicole Wilde
Be Right Back!: How To Overcome Your Dog's Separation Anxiety And Regain Your Freedom by Julie Naismith
Separation Anxiety in Dogs: Next Generation Treatment Protocols and Practices by Malena DeMartini-Price
Online Articles/Blogs/Sites
Separation Anxiety (archived page from the ASPCA)
Pat Miller summary article on treating separation anxiety
Emily "kikopup" Larlham separation training tips
Videos
Using the Treat&Train to Solve Separation Anxiety
introducing an x-pen so the dog likes it (kikopup)
Podcast:
https://www.trainingwithally.com/the-podcast
Online DIY courses:
https://courses.malenademartini.com
https://www.trainingwithally.com/about-2
https://separationanxietydog.thinkific.com/courses/do-it-yourself-separation-anxiety-program
https://rescuedbytraining.com/separation-anxiety-course
​
Introduce your dog if you are new, and for those of you who have previously participated, make sure to tell us how your week has been!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2024/eu-migrant-north-africa-mediterranean/
A year-long joint investigation by The Washington Post, Lighthouse Reports and a consortium of international media outlets shows how the European Union and individual European nations are supporting and financing aggressive operations by governments in North Africa to detain tens of thousands of migrants each year and dump them in remote areas, often barren deserts.
European funds have been used to train personnel and buy equipment for units implicated in desert dumps and human rights abuses, records and interviews show. Migrants have been pushed back into the most inhospitable parts of North Africa, exposing them to abandonment with no food or water, kidnapping, extortion, sale as human chattel, torture, sexual violence and, in the worst instances, death.
human beings living in europe financing african armed forces who reject and punish migrants, its horrible, a nightmare, it makes me feel ashamed to be living in europe
to think of how that state issued currency i use to buy foods in the market, how the same currency is being used to buy weapons and vehicules what cause migrants to experience grave violence and eventually death, it continues to make me feel hopeless for the future of humanity
how can we 500 million or so human beings who live today in europe who today profit of financial wealth amassed during 500 plus years of colonial exploitation in so many places on earth, perhaps a third of all private and public financial wealth in europe generated via the enslavement and abduction of more then 10 million african human beings towards the americas in the transatlantic slave trade, so much land in the americas, in africa, in asia, australia, new zealand stolen from indigenous people by our european ancestors and often the profits of sugar and cotton plantations sent back to europe to be invested into building of palaces for those europeans having financed the colonial abuse
how can we who live today in europe knowing of all this continue to finance the rejection and punishment of migrants ?
how could we change our behaviour ?
i propose that we 8 billion plus human beings alive today would allow each other to leave the coersed association to the regional and nation state at any moment without conditions
we could allow each other a global laisser passer, a global movement tolerance between human beings what would allow everyone to move freely towards spaces where possibly one would be welcome as a refugee seeking person to stay
we could support each other to ask or demand of the state that a 1000 m2 of fertile land and a 1000 m2 of forest would be released for every human being who does not want to be controlled by a state
so that one could sustain oneself on 2000 m2 land free of state control, grow ones own vegan food on it, build ones own natural home from clay, hemp and straw on it, grow hemp to burn its stalks in the cooking and warming fire so that not one tree gets killed
to live and let live
in a free space for free beings, neither state nor nation
the human being not dominating an other human being
the human being not enslaving and not killing animal beings
the human being not killing tree beings
the human being freely travelling the planet to find a space where one can live in harmony with fellow beings

Is there anything I can do legally to stop my neighbor from disrupting my living space?
I moved into my home as Covid hit so 2020, I had just been burnt by what I thought was a friend so I didn’t want to make new ones but my friend who helped me move suggested I get to know thy neighbor, boy was that a mistake!
The first year: she had a small dog who piss and shit in the front yard, it’s okay she picked up after him. The weeds were an issue and she wants me to help weed the yard her dog did his deeds. She also has a cat that poops in every space on my property she doesn’t clean up I had plant die because the cat pees in the flower bed. My friend used the garage to fix things as his was under repair and the door would be closed but she would walk right in to get him to fix things for her for free, resulting in him not using the garage and he doesn’t come over anymore for fear of bumping into her. Made the mistake of giving her my number all she did was text me about my dog barking and she would exaggerate it as well as I confirmed with another neighbor who said yes it barks but not often or long. Year 2: I’m annoyed, I push back by making her do the yard work in the front your dog and cat mess up the front you should clean it was my attitude. The continuous texts about my dog barking doesn’t stop. She now starts complaining about my programs I watch on tv because she can see through my window to my tv. Oh yeah did I mention she looks into my windows to see if I’m home when I ignore the door. She has learned I leave my door unlock, she tried to come in my home but my dog stopped her. She has tried to get my husband to do things for her. I ran a home beauty spa out of my home and she kept approaching my clients that I ended up closing my spa. Year three: I can’t leave my house she’s watching me come and go. When I leave my home she’s texting me about the dog barking. I gave up my life outside the house to ensure my dog didn’t bark. I can’t watch tv, even with privacy film on the window she sees the light from the tv on and she texts me about it. I work from home and attend college from home so I need to disconnect some how so I listen to music well apparently I can’t do that either. Now, I have a family member who came from Manitoba he’s got a big truck as he’s in construction and wants to try to see if he can get stable out here. He hasn’t been here no more then 24 hours and she follows him from my side walk all the way into my home trying to get him to talk to her. My daughter stopped her at the door said no and slammed the door in her face.
Also the dog thing has gotten to the point she’s called by law twice he came and I provided documentation the dog is trained and how it’s been trained and by law left. She’s also gone as far as to call and harassed the owner about the dog again I provided the documentation to help others understand the dog. I have a written note from by law as well.
I would really like not to move, so don’t suggest this. The dog is at the end of life and will be put down in June. None of my friends want to come here for fear of being bothered by her.
I can’t seem to listen to music, watch tv, enjoy my space or let alone go and come as I please.

FYI, this is a story COLLECTION. Lots of standalones technically. So, you can basically start to read at any chapter, no pre-read of the other chapters needed technically (other than maybe getting better descriptions of characters than: Adam Vir=human, Krill=antlike alien, Sunny=tall alien, Conn=telepathic alien). The numbers are (mostly) only for organization of posts and continuity.
OC Written by Charlie Stastarrfallknightrise,
Typed up and then posted here by me.
Proofreading and language check for some chapters by u/Finbar9800 u/BakeGullible9975 u/Didnotseemecomein and u/medium_jock
Future Lore and fact check done by me.
Awwwww! So cute!
Previous First [Next](link)
Want to find a specific one, see the whole list or check fanart?
Here is the link to the master-post.
She got up in the dark, with only the dim ambience of soft blue lighting to accompany her. She stretched all four arms, her two legs, and rolled her neck. It struck her as mildly interesting in that moment, how something so small could connect them to humans, The thought was fleeting as she took another step forward to kneel down on the floor. There, in a little alcove in the wall, she had set a volcanic rock from Anin, dried moss, and other paraphernalia from her home world. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath resting her hands together.
Praise and respect to the spirits of Anin. Praise the fathers and mothers of war gone to their rest below the moss and the earth. Praise their spirits that watch from the sky and peer through the ether down upon us.
She continued the slow mantra in the style of Prayer learned from Naktan and pulled her concentration to her core, ignoring anything and everything around her. A deep state of meditation overtook her. She would never have done this if she thought there were any chance that she was in danger, but below she knew Earth glowed like a sphere before their orbiting ship. There was no worry of invasion.
She thought she heard something at one point, but chose to ignore it as she continued her mantra.
Eventually, and after an unknown amount of minutes, she stood and turned slowly to find-
She stopped, and crossed her arms over her chest.
"What are you doing?”
Adam burrowed his way further down into her blankets, nuzzling his head up against her pillow,
"So warm, and comfy!"
She tried not to smile,
"You dumbass."
He pulled the blankets tighter around himself,
"You know, I did come here to talk to you, but now I actually am really comfortable, so come back in two hours."
"I- This is MY home!"
He closed his eyes and pretended to snore loudly.
She rolled her eyes as she watched him theatrically pretend to sleep. She looked around mildly for a moment, before picking up another pillow and glancing at the door. She casually walked over, dropped the pillow on his head and then held it down as if she intended to smother him.
”Die human scum!”
That got him up and moving.
Before long the two of them were grappling for the upper hand, him trying to put her in a choke hold, and her using her lower arms to pinch him.
He yelped,
"Ouch! Pinching is illegal!”
"Sissy."
He clamped his legs around her lower arms, pinning them in place.
She struggled for a minute and then went limp.
She could feel his smug smile,
"I win, I beat the saint of Anin. Everyone bow at my feet."
"You say that, but if this were a real fight, since you’re a human male, you're the one with a self-destruct button."
"Self-destruct button...?"
"Meaning if this were a real fight, I would have punched you in the balls."
"Yaoooutch… Oh god… Please don't."
Finally, he let her go, leaving the two of them to lay on her bed, sheets scattered on the floor around them, and her pillows in disarray. Adam put his hands behind his head and sighed.
She glanced over at him,
"I don't suppose you came to just hang out. Here on Admiral-ly business?"
He groaned, pulling one of her pillows over his face,
"Please smother me for real this time."
She leaned up on one of her elbows,
"Why?"
"I don't wanna be an adult anymore!"
She tilted her head to the side, watching in amusement as he attempted to throw a childlike tantrum, but only really had the energy to kick his feet once,
"It's boring and lame and they won’t let me wear heelies to important meetings... also children don't have to pay taxes."
She laughed, pulling the pillow from his face,
"Adam you are many things, but 'adult' is not one of them."
He grinned slightly,
"True enough."
He sighed again and rested his head back against the pillows,
"I just want to get back to what we are supposed to be doing, exploring the universe and making cool alien friends."
He threw up his hands in frustration,
"But suddenly I find myself embroiled in stupid annoying politics that I don't understand, being used by people who are, let’s face it, WAY smarter than me, constantly finding myself getting manipulated."
She huffed,
"They aren't smarter than you Adam, they're just manipulative, and you aren't."
He sighed,
"Fair enough."
Then he looked at her, bright green eyes reflecting the soft ambient blue light,
"I just, I miss this, I miss us, I miss hanging out and doing stupid shit, and all of the things I could do when I wasn't so important and this operation was smaller."
She smiled rather sadly reaching one hand over for his, lacing the four of her fingers through the five of his,
"Well someone has to do the hard things, who better than you?”
He glanced over at her, raising an eyebrow,
"Or you, miss saint?”
She rolled her eyes again,
"Can't seem to get you off of that. I'm still the same person I used to be."
"But with power."
She elbowed him gently and he grinned,
"But really, I am proud and impressed and... Let's be honest super super smug that 'I' know you personally."
"I know, I am pretty terrific."
The two of them laughed for a minute before settling down again. He glanced over to her little shrine on the wall,
"What were you doing just then?"
She looked up at the ceiling, following the lines of metal and rivets with her eyes,
"Praying to the spirits of Anin."
Embarrassed, he shifted,
"I didn't know you were... Well I didn't think you were all that religious?"
She shrugged,
"Don't feel bad, it's sort of a new thing. Back before all this, it was sort of just stories to me. Like I believed it because that was what everyone believed, but I didn't really accept it, or feel it the way I do now. After everything with my mother, it was hard to feel connected to something I felt I wasn't a part of... But then after visiting my mother, after becoming a saint for a religion I never really followed... Well, it started to make more sense. It feels real now in a way that it never did."
She turned to look at him, finding him watching her, the UV blue stripes in his skin glowing blue.
"I believe in the spirits of Anin more than I ever have."
He smiled at her and squeezed her hand,
"I'm glad to hear it."
They lapsed into silence for a long moment, staring up at the ceiling before, inevitably he broke it,
"So this makes you like, space Moses right?”
She frowned and turned to look at him,
"What is a “Moses”?"
He grinned,
"A guy from one of the Earth Religions. You know, guy follows god's directions to lead his people away from slavery, climbs a mountain, receives the word of god, comes down to give it to the people, that sort of thing."
Sunny tilted her head slightly to the side,
"Are you religious?"
He paused, frowning,
"I... well I... don't really know. My family has been some flavor of Christian for a long time."
"Christian?"
"Uh yeah, the general idea is that there is one all-powerful deity who created everything. He has rules and laws that you are supposed to follow, the general tenants of this specific religion mostly boil down to: love everyone and don't be a dick, which humans are notoriously bad at. You sin you go to hell, a very bad place after you die, and if you are a good person you go to heaven. Problem is everyone is a sinner and breaks the rules, so really no one was going to get into heaven."
"That sounds bleak..."
"Well, that's where the other stuff comes in. Basically, this all-powerful deity sent down his son in human form to live a perfect life, so when he was martyred he took on the sins of all of humanity and paid for them in the greatest act of mercy to open the gate for the rest of us into heaven."
Sunny shifted as he tilted to the side to lay in the crook of her arms,
"Of course that is just one religion among tons on earth, we aren't really as cohesive in our beliefs as Drev are... As for me... I'm not really sure."
She tilted her head to the side, cheek resting against his hair,
"After seeing space, I become more and more convinced of some... Thing that created everything, but beyond that it's sort of a tossup."
She ran one hand through his hair, coarse but still soft somehow.
"You know my name comes from that religion?”
She turned her head to look at him,
"Oh, really?”
"Adam was the first man."
"What do you mean!?”
Adam shrugged,
"He was supposedly the first man that god created, from the dust of the earth... I think?"
She gave him a sidelong glance,
"Look, and you get to be the first idiot in space."
He snorted and poked her in the ribs.
"There were PLENTY of idiots in space before me, believe you me."
"Mmm I don't know, you are pretty dumb."
He laughed, grabbing a pillow and hitting her with it. She rolled over so she was lying on top of him and then went limp.
He struggled,
"Get your big ass off me."
"Oh no, I have been attacked by a sudden acute case of the “my spine doesn't work anymore”-disease."
"If you don't move, you'll suddenly find yourself with a case of “fist in your face”-disease."
She laughed and rolled off him, making sure the hard parts of her carapace were sticking down for maximum discomfort.
He grunted.
They returned to lying down next to each other in the half darkness. Sunny reached over and turned on some quiet music in the background as the two of them sat and talked, and laughed.
"I can't wait to get back to deep space."
He closed his eyes and hummed softly at the thought,
"Just the crew and the darkness and nothing ahead of us but an endless frontier."
Surprisingly, she found the thought to be more than a little comforting, and closed her eyes thinking about the vast reaches of blackness and the endless spinning galaxies.
"And while we are out, we can drop Conn into a pulsar."
He snorted,
“Why? Well first of for scientific reasons! If a marshmallow causes a nuclear blast, I wonder what dropping Conn would do… but at least he’d be dead.”
"That billowy bastard would survive and you know it."
She huffed,
"Still though, if I have to hear one more smug lecture how he has a child with you, I'm gonna wring his scrawny neck."
He grinned teeth flashing blue in the light,
"Is someone... Jealous?"
Sunny laughed, almost tipping him off the bed and onto the floor with her mirth,
"Yes Adam, I am totally jealous, really I am, ‘kay?. I mean who wouldn't want to have a child with YOU, big dumb, dork. Really the perfect place to put my superior genes."
"Superior genes, says someone who can't reach the top shelf."
She kicked him, foot clanging off his prosthetic,
"I am a foot taller than you."
He placed his hand next to his ear,
"What was that, I can't hear you over how short you are."
Sunny shook her head,
"At least I have binocular vision and both my knees."
"So we are gonna ignore that that binocular vision is due to a prosthetic now after the whole “your mom” incident? And also, veeery important: weird neck nostrils, don't forget about those!"
"Oh yes, so I can’t house them on my face like you and your bigass nose."
"Low blow, low blow."
"There are... Lower things... I could make fun of."
He snorted,
"Can't make fun of it if you've never seen it. You on the other hand, walking around in the nude..."
"You're welcome. Who wouldn't love…"
She gestured to herself,
"This."
"Mmm yeah... chitin, very sexy."
"I am a gift to the universe, and should be appreciated by everyone."
He brushed a hand through his hair,
"Well I find that real gifts are gift wrapped, so jot that down."
"Oh yeah, like a prank gift when you put something lame in a box for something cool."
He frowned at her,
"You wound me. My feelings are so very very hurt. I might even cry."
"I drink human tears."
"That… that's really gross.'
She laughed and then they lapsed into silence. She could hear him breathing quietly next to her in the darkness, his chest rising and falling under the ambient blue light. She looked across the room to where her saint armor was hanging in its climate-controlled case illuminated to a pearly sheen.
"Adam?"
"Yeah?”
"You know I'm just kidding about calling you dumb right?"
"Yeah I know."
"I'm proud of what you've been doing."
Adam turned to look at her rather incredulous,
"Me, of what? I haven't been doing shit."
"So, we are just going to ignore you overthrowing a maniacal politician while simultaneously piloting a 2,000 year old spacecraft?"
"That was more Conn and Eris than it was me."
"It was your idea."
"Let’s not forget Admiral Kelly."
Sunny pulled him closer,
"I am sorry, I will not be accepting anything other than you acknowledging that you did a good job."
"Screw you!”
"You'd like that wouldn't you?”
He sighed,
"You've been talking to Ramirez WAY too much."
She was only slightly smug as she rested her head back against the pillow,
"I really should get up and train..."
"We should yeah..."
Neither of them moved.
"Alternatively, we could just... Lay here... All day and do... nothing."
She looked up at the ceiling for a long moment and pretended to be in deep contemplation before…
"Well it's official, you have convinced me. You and your silver tongue."
"I am a master negotiator."
He shifted position putting one arm behind his head,
"Think about it, by this time tomorrow we will be back to space exploring and doing what we should have been doing all along. I can't wait."
"That makes two of us."
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Want to find a specific one, see the whole list or check fanart?
Here is the link to the master-post.
Intro post by me
OC-whole collection
Patreon of the author
Thanks for reading! As you saw in the title, this is a cross posted story written by starrfallknightrise and I'll just upload some of it here for you guys, if you are interested and want to read ahead, the original story-collection can be found on tumblr or wattpad to read for free. (link above this text under "OC:..." ) It is the Empyrean Iris story collection by starfallknightrise. Also, if you want to know more about the story collection i made an intro post about it, so feel free to check that out to see what other great characters to look forward to! (Link also above this text). I have no affiliations to the author; just thought I’d share some of the great stories you might enjoy a lot!
Obviously, I have Charlie’s permission to post this and for the people already knowing the stories, or starting to read them: If you follow the link and check out the story you will see some differences. I made some small (non-artistic) changes, mainly correcting writing mistakes, pronoun correction and some small additional info here and there of things which were not thought of/forgotten or even were added/changed in later stories (like the “USS->UNSC” prefix of Stabby, Chalar=/->Sunny etc). As well as some "biggemajor" changes in descriptions and info’s for the same stringency/continuity reason. That can be explained by the story collection being, well a story collection at the start with many standalone-stories just starring the same people, but later on it gets more to a stringent storyline with backstories and throwbacks. (For example Adam Vir has some HEAVY scars over his body, following his bones, which were not really talked about up till half the collection, where it says it covers his whole body and you find out via backflash that he had them the whole time and how he got them, they just weren't mentioned before. However, I would think a doctor would at least see these scars before that, especially since he gets analyzed, treated and goes shirtless/in T-shirts in some stories). So TLDR: Writing and some descriptions are slightly changed, with full OK from the author, since he himself did not bother to correct these things before.