Brain Teaser

General Chat 💬
1

Saw a fierce debate on social media over this.

Somehow, not everyone sees the same answer!
I thought there were interesting parallels with stock buying.

The answer will be very obvious to most, but there’s a lesson in there too.

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2

$500?

Sold first time for $300 profit; take the $100 away for difference between first selling and new buying price to leave still $200 profit; $300 profit the second time added to $200.

I’ll be interested to see if I’m wrong.

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3

Each buy/sell is completely independent of the other. Might as well have bought another cow on the second purchase. Or a horse.

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4

As @lizmcp says, each purchase is entirely independent. There are 2 purchases and sales that make $300 each so the profit is $600.

I thought there was something to reflect on there in relation to investing.

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5

Initial outlay is £900, so minus 900.
Sold for 1200, so 300 profit.
Then bought again for 1300, so now on minus 1000.
But sold for 1600, so end up with 600 profit/in the green.

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6

What were the transport costs? did you have to buy in fodder or did the cow live in a field you already owned?
What about auction fees etc?
Not enough information to form a firm opinion on profit.

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7

Not sure the minus £1000 bit - correct answer though, just questionable workings out. :rofl:

8

The cow was an NFT I think :rofl:

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9

Ha, yes I guess they are. I obviously fell into the trap that you hoped someone would fall into to demonstrate the point then :rofl:

I see the lesson with regards to investing though (I hope) - just because you owned a stock before, take the decision independently of that if you are considering it again at a point in the future.

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11

Yes the pitfall is to aggregate the purchases. Which is very tempting in my mind too :rofl:

But yes, thats the relevance I saw to investing too, treat each buy as a separate event, as mathematically or financially thats exactly what it is :+1:

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12

10 cows in a field each one has a number on it from 1 - 10.

Which one is from the middle east ? Coo 8 of course

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13

I’ll need a wee calf after hearing that joke

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14

Take a fortnight you deserve it

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15

:rofl::rofl::rofl::+1:

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16

Has anyone asked @CashCow how he feels about being bought and sold on the open market like this?

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17

Because when you use a calculator it shows that :slight_smile:

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18

This reminded me of the two cows economics joke but I can’t seem to find it.

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19

Well you have set the challenge for tomorrow :rofl:

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20

Lots of variations but I think this is close to the original:

Two Cows Economics

  • Communism: You have two cows. The State takes both of them and gives you some milk.

  • Fascism: You have two cows. The State takes both and sells you some milk.

  • Socialism: You have two cows. The State takes one and gives it to your neighbour.

  • Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull to produce more cows.

  • Bureaucratism: You have two cows. The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other and then throws the milk away.

  • Venture Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights for six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Islands Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option for one more.

  • American Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has died.

  • French Capitalism: You have two cows. You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads because you want three cows.

  • Swiss Capitalism: You have 5000 cows. None of them belongs to you. You charge the owners for storing them.

  • Australian capitalism: You have two cows. Business seems pretty good. You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.

  • Indian capitalism: You have two cows. You worship them.

  • British capitalism: You have two cows. Both are mad.

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21

Very good! Just gutted the VC one is what owns FT :rofl: with a mix of the last mad cows.

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