IS THIS feasible?

[systematictrader]

Just read your linked in profile that you linked. Hedge fund manager is your title but it's clear from your description you are just a retail forex trader. Private plane and a yacht from retail forex trading??? Good luck with that.

for the record iam a retail trader, my goal is to manage a hedge fund, I got detoured by this startup cuz of the potential magnitude

 

[Overnight]

Electric cars?

No no, nothing that pedantic. It's simpler than that.

 

[systematictrader]

@RUFUS MREHIN I think you show a lot of potential in your ability to form a coherent idea and articulate it. I don't mean this in a disparaging way, but there's no way to say it without sounding as such.

Your LinkedIn would be quite off-putting to me as a potential partner, investor, or customer. While it seems very geniune, it's quite difficult to take someone seriously who lists their employment as at hedge fund with their name on it when you quite readily and honestly allude to the fact that 2016 was your first profitable year above. Furthermore, things you aspire to own are not the subject matter of a professional summary in my opinion.

All of these aspirations are okay: I want to achieve financial independence, I have delusions of grandeur that have been diagnosed, these things are not problematic. What is problematic in my eyes is the potential for your entrepreneurial spirit to be held back by a lack of refinement in the first point of professional reference anyone looks for on you. If we were friends I'd be telling you this as a friend, please don't interpret this as a personal attack. I think you show a tremendous amount of potential and I applaud your work ethic and ingenuity but let's not forget that often in business "perception is reality" and it's important to present yourself in a way that maximizes the potential for someone to take you seriously in a professional context.

from the bottom of my heart I seriously want to thank you cuz you bring upon points that I wouldn't notice from my side,,, and believe me iam not offended at all cuz I myself iam very critical and harsh on myself to make sure I don't overlook anything

you bring key points on my linkedin and I appreciate it,,, for the longest time my linkedin was ultra professional and I felt like it didn't resemble truly me,,,, if u read my linked in a year ago or so you would've thought omg,,, but I reached a point where I felt like any person can get the top professional writing on their (as me in the past) and draw a picture of who they are NOT,,, I changed my linked in 3 months ago to resemble more me on day to day basis rather than a snapshot of what I aspire to be,,,,i do genuinely appreciate ur comment specially ur second paragraph as it highlights important things on me,,,,

but two questions if u don't mind asking,, what would be your comment in this thread if lets say I didn't even have a LinkedIn, or u didn't see it???

once again, I appreciate your professionalism and constructive criticism as it helps me realign

 

[vanzandt]

first I want to thank you for reminding me to update the profile, u bring important points about my linkedin,, but not relevant to what were talking about,,, none the less thank u
,, people like u seriously amuse me on what they focus on,,, yes my linkedin profile is shitty and is not updated and disconnected in terms of content,, I know, I didn't know LINKEDIN profile is indicative of the persons character or performance,,, GOOD LUCK,,,, Idk about luck,,, I might not be as old as you (iam 28) but I didn't get to where iam at with good luck cuz I don't believe in luck as most successful people do,,,

I wont get too much in the pissing match with you,,,,, private yacht and private jet,,, yes,, it isn't impossible,,, many have done it,,, from startups or trading,,,, most started with nothing,,, it once again amazes me what ur focusing on...

I would normally wish you good luck back,,, but u seem like the type of person that EVEN if you have it you wont know what to do with it....

I think you're mis-reading him Rufus. He meant all the best.
Just constructive criticism from his point of view.
You only get one chance to make a first impression. That's all he was saying.
Keep it positive.

 

[systematictrader]

I think you're mis-reading him Rufus. He meant all the best.
Just constructive criticism from his point of view.
You only get one chance to make a first impression. That's all he was saying.
Keep it positive.

ur right lets keep it positive,,, but also the idea here is what the thread is about ,,, not my linkedin or the yacht or the jet, lets not get distracted

 

[systematictrader]

My main question for you is...

How do you intend to make money? A whole bunch of people sign up for your card in, let's say May of this year, when RBOB or whatever is $2 per gallon. Let's say it's 10,000 people who buy 1,000 gallons for their cards. That's 10,000,000 gallons you are supplying, so $20,000,000 you get back from those purchases.

But price of RBOB drops to $1 per gallon and stays there for 2 years, so nobody uses any of those 10,000,000 gallons you "purchased for them on their behalf" to be used later.

What are you doing with those 10,000,000 gallons of gas you cannot sell at a loss? For how long can you afford to store it? For how long will that $20,000,000 be able to be held onto before your business expenses dwindle it down to an amount so low that you decide to fold up your operation?

How are you going to actually make your money in this new business venture? What is your business plan?

Don't get me wrong, it sounds like a great idea on paper. But if it was that good, why have we not seen this exact thing you are describing already? Gas rewards notwithstanding? (Which by the way I suspect is simple profit trade-offs between people spending more on groceries and the company offsetting that extra profit with a bit of lost profit-potential on the gasoline. But the groceries is their main profit-maker, so they probably make more from the extra grocery purchases than what they lose on the lost gas profit.)

to begin with as I hope u read the first few pages, the number 1 goal is NOT to make tons of money but rather to build a user base and NOT lose tons of money,,,,

ur example acutally makes it even easier to implement with such large numbers,, the hurdle is actually more when the company is small than big,,,

perfect scenario you bring up with the rbob prices and price changes,, perfect, seriously perfect

first of all at a static level, customers make a purchase of 20 million gallons, here are the steps,, the purchase would be unearned revenue (!)
money initially could've been made assuming we s,, old at exact price which we don't have to, we could sell at a spread of 2.05,, that's one

two, membership fees, so if in ur example which I think is toooo easy of a scenario ,,,they don't use gas for 2 years means member ship fees are paid for even longer,,,

third u assume all consumers are of the tier that wont use the gas,,, NEVER is that the case for every one,,, ur gonna have the drivers of uber,, the trucking (mid size) companies of the world and the students who simply use our service to budget accurately for a given period of time and they will redeem their gallons regardless of the price in which this is actually is beneficial because the portion of the gallons redeemed translate from unearned revenue directly to earned profit since the some customers paid 2 dollar a gallon and redeemed at a lower price,,, (well still have an unrealized loss on the hedge, but this part is not closed yet)

once again, there is NO STORAGE,,,iam not sure why this is being asked again,,,

the operation would never in a sense be folded up cuz the hedge is covered from both ends,,, as long as the hedge is done to near perfection then a drastic blow loss or implosion would never happen,, there could be imperfect hedges along the way from contango and backwardation in futures markets but it wouldn't be to a drastic percentage of more than 10%....

additionally money sitting with the company longer means more time value of money

brb,, I got more on for ur post

 

[Overnight]

K, well, got bored on waiting for your "quick responses..."


My no-win scenario is this...


So you base the purchase price of the gallon card on the users' regions they live in, yes? So what prevents me from loading up my card with 1,000 gallons from my home state of Texas, and then purchasing those 1,000 gallons at the pump in California, where it's over $1 higher?

I could buy cheap gas in bulk in Texas, based on a Texas home address, and resell it California for a profit? So I make money, the purchaser saves money, and you lose money. That is a no-win scenario.

The idea seems too open to exploitation to be a rock-solid business idea, based upon the information you have provided both here and on your website.

But if you come out with this idea and make it a reality based on your explanations of how it will work, I will be a very profitable arbitrageur. (And so will a whole bunch of folks I think.)

Better think this through some more, or explain the gritty details of your business plan.

 

[vanzandt]

K, well, got bored on waiting for your "quick responses..."


My no-win scenario is this...


So you base the purchase price of the gallon card on the users' regions they live in, yes? So what prevents me from loading up my card with 1,000 gallons from my home state of Texas, and then purchasing those 1,000 gallons at the pump in California, where it's over $1 higher?

I could buy cheap gas in bulk in Texas, based on a Texas home address, and resell it California for a profit? So I make money, the purchaser saves money, and you lose money. That is a no-win scenario.

The idea seems too open to exploitation to be a rock-solid business idea, based upon the information you have provided both here and on your website.

But if you come out with this idea and make it a reality based on your explanations of how it will work, I will be a very profitable arbitrageur. (And so will a whole bunch of folks I think.)

Better think this through some more, or explain the gritty details of your business plan.

Interesting point.

 

[O(1)]

first of all at a static level, customers make a purchase of 20 million gallons, here are the steps,, the purchase would be unearned revenue (!)
money initially could've been made assuming we s,, old at exact price which we don't have to, we could sell at a spread of 2.05,, that's one

Hey Rufus..

I'm not sure if I understand what you were trying to say in this statement. Are you saying you would turn around and sell them immediately? Then what happens when they want to buy their gas 10 yrs later if the going price is 3X? Do you know the cost to hedge til an unknown time? And were you hoping to be able to cover that with membership fees? Or were you thinking of making the membership fee based on volatility, interest rates, costs of storage and delivery? The dangling unknown time factor is what isn't settling right for me.

I hope all this didn't sound overly-critical. I know texting can come across in a different way. I'm simply thinking this thing thru.

 

[ajacobson]

There is a empirical example of this in the marketplace now in the form of Costco gas stations. They run between three and seven cents cheaper than typical "neighborhood" prices and they are usually packed. There are other financial loyalty rewards from Costco membership and using the dedicated card, but these are not in cash. They rewards are in Costco currency and part of the rewards come from the Citi Visa. Membership driven and all located on property.
They also have huge scale in an existing "paid" membership model.