Life Arbitrage

[Skill Leverage]

Since T2W is full of toss these days, I thought I might go for something slightly different to 'look at me everyone I made 2,000,000% on one trade love me', or 'why am I not a millionaire yet', and ask you all to give examples of scenarios in life where you can get something for nothing... for example:

On the McDonalds breakfast menu, a Sausage and Egg McMuffin costs £1.99. A Big Breakfast without the coffee also costs £1.99, for which you get two pieces of muffin, some scrambled egg, a sausage patty and a hash brown. From this you can construct your own McMuffin, and have a hash brown on the side, which you could then sell to someone for less than the market rate, locking in your profit.

SL

 

[meanreversion]

You should probably use the MACD(onalds) indicator to confirm this trading strategy.

 

[meanreversion]

Skill, once you ge to 1,000 posts do you become "legendary"... do you have one eye on that prize right now?

 

[gooseman]

you are not putting a cost on your time here (or indeed your reputation standing outside mcd's hawking hash browns for 20p)

 

[Skill Leverage]

you are not putting a cost on your time here (or indeed your reputation standing outside mcd's hawking hash browns for 20p)

Very funny post about MACD meanreversion...

I was thinking more like 50p since they retail at 79p; I reckon though it's more a case of I'm a greedy git who likes a hash brown with his McMuffin, but doesn't necessarily want to pay for one. I'm not sure there's a viable business in it, although it wouldn't surprise me to see someone from here peddling hash browns outside Waterloo station some time in the near future...

 

[gooseman]

i haven't been there in about 3 years so have no idea how much deep fried lumps of reconstituted potato cost

but i like the theme of this thread-let's see if we can keep this rolling...

 

[gooseman]

gammajammer touched on this yesterday-could you do mars bar forwards? so when the next offer comes out "bigger by 10%" buy a whole heap, get your cost of carry and sell a bunch of futures (inflation adjusted) on the assumption they will return to "regular" size (not compounded GJ)

 

[Martinghoul]

I like this game...

I was thinking about the retail version of the oil contango trade all the banks are doing. If I buy lots of gas today, sell it fwd, store it in my backyard and then deliver on the fwd date, could I make a profit?

 

[advfntrader]

Free bets at online bookies. Use Betfair to hedge and then you can get the "free" money regardless

 

[Yuppie]

Argo...

Okay, not technically free money.. but if you're of the ilk that thinks 'time is money'... this is for you...

Right, can't guarantee it will work in your branch, but when I go to buy something in Argos and there is a fairly substantial backlog* of people waiting for their items to be revealed like a nasty retail version of Stars In Their Eyes... what I do is this...

I go to the till as if to pay for the item I've written down the number of (making sure that they don't see the handful of these-will-some-in-useful miniature pens I have stashed in my top-pocket) and ask if I can just "take a look" at this item.

You get a receipt just like you would if you had paid and then you go and wait. From my own limited experience this seems to jump the queue. You then have a brief squint at the item, say "that'll do", and they will either let you pay for it at a separate till or you just go back and pay at the original till. Time saved - BONUS!!


*remind me to tell my 'backlog' joke later

 

[Yuppie]

This thread has the potential to be a contender!!

 

[Yuppie]

Parking...

Another, this one more obvious...

Before you leave one of those pay-when-you-leave carparks with your ticket you received 12+ hours ago... run down to the drive-in entrance and push for another ticket. You'll only have to pay the minimum, 20 mins or whatever it is at said carpark.

Tip: watch out for carparks that are manned - especially with the said "man" in a booth next to the drive-in entrance... lol...

..or, do what I do, and hunt around for a long time finding somewhere to park for free - wasting all that time I saved not queuing in Argos...

Another Life Arbitrage tip brought to you by Cash-Quik-Enterprises™


Magnus

 

[Skill Leverage]

Another, this one more obvious...

Before you leave one of those pay-when-you-leave carparks with your ticket you received 12+ hours ago... run down to the drive-in entrance and push for another ticket. You'll only have to pay the minimum, 20 mins or whatever it is at said carpark.

Tip: watch out for carparks that are manned - especially with the said "man" in a booth next to the drive-in entrance... lol...


Another Life Arbitrage tip brought to you by Cash-Quik-Enterprises™


Magnus

This one is excellent, the prices on those things are getting ridiculous. 6 quid to rent a 10 x 5 patch of concrete for an hour... you must be kidding.

 

[Yuppie]

This one is excellent, the prices on those things are getting ridiculous. 6 quid to rent a 10 x 5 patch of concrete for an hour... you must be kidding.

10 x 5?

Luxury!... Every one I go to I have to let the passenger out, before parking, so I can park close enough to a concrete pillar and hopefully get out the other side without crackin' ribs.

 

[GammaJammer]

you are not putting a cost on your time here (or indeed your reputation standing outside mcd's hawking hash browns for 20p)

Good point re reputation Goose. It would actually go UP in this particular case. So in theory the breakeven cost to knock out the hash browns is actually a touch cheaper than otherwise would be expected

 

[Yuppie]

Night out.. or hot date...

This one is just as usable for women...

Instead of spending vasts sums of money on miniature bottles of perfume/aftershave for your night out on the town... just head along a large boots, or boutique or such and "test" the latest fragrances.

Again, obvious, but you don't want to be lumbered with a £90 (or whatever it is) bottle of stuff you wouldn't even give to a skunk as a present!


Magnus

 

[Skill Leverage]

Good point re reputation Goose. It would actually go UP in this particular case. So in theory the breakeven cost to knock out the hash browns is actually a touch cheaper than otherwise would be expected

If you're implyng that the reputation of a prop trader is less than that of a man selling cold, man-handled hashbrowns outside McDonalds... how very dare you...

 

[Yuppie]

If you're implyng that the reputation of a prop trader is less than that of a man selling cold, man-handled hashbrowns outside McDonalds... how very dare you...

I aspire to the hash-brown leagues.

 

[GammaJammer]

If you're implyng that the reputation of a prop trader is less than that of a man selling cold, man-handled hashbrowns outside McDonalds... how very dare you...

Well that's not precisely what I was implying, but not a million miles away either......

 

[gooseman]

if we're going down these routes then we'd have street vendors all over the place buying meal deals and punting out (cold) big macs everywhere.