Spice Trader

Categories: Trading, Investing

Ever read the Dune book series? One take on the concept of spice trading. You can also think of it in terms of the mariners who sailed around the seven seas and eventually bumped into the New World. We're not dealing with those here either.

In terms of financial markets, the term "spice trader" relates to an investor who likes to take big risks. To put it another way, they like to feel a spice in their portfolios.

Like to dabble in penny stocks? Use margin to buy futures contracts to speculate on North Korean currency? If the answer is "yes," then gargle some tabasco and call yourself a spice trader.

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Finance: What are Angel Investors and Se...8 Views

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Find it a la shma What are angel investors and

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seed funds Just call me angel Thanks That's All right

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that sometimes Yeah All right Well an angel investor is

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typically i'm sorry Won't sing again An angel Investors typically

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someone who was wildly successful in an entrepreneurial venture of

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their own They feel a kind of moral obligation to

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recycle their winnings And in most cases very very early

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stage companies are so extremely risky with failure rates over

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ninety nine percent Well that it takes some kind of

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angel to come in and invest the first few hundred

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grand Get them started building that nose picking device the

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world has always wanted no And since in most cases

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very early start ups have absolutely no idea what they're

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worth So many initial angel investments carry no price meaning

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that there was only one term carried by the money

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invested It will be valued at say a ten percent

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or whatever number discount toe whatever valuation The next round

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if there is one values the company at while the

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first few million bucks into google by a small handful

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Of already successful silicon valley types ended up being converted

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into stock in their initial or a round which was

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done at a whopping almost seventy million dollars It was

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done at the height of the first internet bubble and

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while timing is everything sometimes google's original investment netted it's

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angel investors some ten thousand times their money and spawned

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a whole many industry in angels getting together hoping tio

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you know do more googles When angels pool their money

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they create what is called a seed fund think seeds

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planted in the ground to eventually bear fruit You know

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like that And when seed investors are right yeah sometimes

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they make that ten thousand times their money thing and

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yahoo google facebook and a small handful of others all

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live in this lofty world of ten thousand xers We're

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on ly the loftiest of angels fly q's call me

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change All right i'll stop Hey if you've got google

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money and you can call me whatever you want No

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)