Investing in Movies vs. the Stock Market

Obama's Presidency promises to bring reality to the markets. The politicians in Washington are going to be on a Third World kick. The climate for independent filmmakers will be good. There will be a lot of crazy stories to tell over the next four years.

Nov. 5, 2008

The Stock Market is going up and down like a yo-yo. Yesterday it dropped over 700 points, the biggest drop in history. The world markets are dropping down also. However, even if the stock markets are the barometers of world economy, the world economies themselves are not governed by the gamblers who bet on them. The world population is increasing and the world resources are being consumed faster than can be replaced; therefore, the world populations are becoming impoverished day by day. This trend is not going to change. It is going to be harder and harder to make money in the Stock Market in an honest way.

Oct. 16, 2008

World Stock Markets are all crashing. The US Stock Market dropped 678.91 points today. The Dow Jones Average is now 8579.19. This is very close to what it was ten years ago. Taking into consideration the number of companies that have disappeared entirely and the thousands of new companies that have come into the Stock Market, it is clear that the Stock Market represents a poor investment opportunity. You are probably better off starting your own business and investing in your own company.

Oct. 9, 2008

The Stock Market dropped another 500 points today. Yesterday it was down over 300. There is no telling how far it will drop. Funny thing is that the stock brokers seemed to be pretty calm now that their needs have been addressed. The stock brokers make money when the market goes up or when it goes down, because they make their commissions either way. So it's the investors and gamblers that are losing trillions of dollars. The money just disappears; it's only paper anyway -- it's what they say.

It's different with the film business. When a filmmaker makes a movie and even if all the money is lost, at least there is a movie left. The movie is a permanent asset. A movie has the potential to become a classic. Memories are what only remain.

Oct. 7, 2008

The Bailout Bill was signed by Pres. George W. Bush yesterday, Friday 3rd of October, 2008. The Bailout Bill was designed to save the Economy so the people of the United States wouldn't have to pay the price for the mistakes of the Predatory Lenders and the Stock Market Gamblers. They in turn are expected not to do what they did to the public again.

Seven hundred billion dollars will be printed by the Treasury and distributed to those institutions that will presumably help the American people from ending up in the street.

It's interesting that in the scramble to grab the money, somebody managed to put $487,000,000 so movies won't end up being shot outside the US!

The Bailout Bill will also bailout Hollywood! Hooray for Hollywood!

Are the indie filmmakers going to get a piece of that pie? Not likely. The Independent Filmmakers make movies for peanuts; they don't need millions. The millions will go to the studios. The studios know how to spend money. The feature films of Hollywood are averaging $80,000,000 each and the marketing budgets are about $75,000,000 for each movie. So Hollywood will be able to keep about three movies from going out of the country at this rate.

Too bad they're not going to help the independent filmmakers. The indie filmmakers would've made five hundred movies with that money.

Oh, well, the Stock Market won't like it if the high-rollers don't have any money

If, however, the Stock Market continues to slide down toward ground zero, the public will need cheap entertainment, as they did after the Big Crash of 1929, and the indie filmmakers will come to the rescue and offer the kind of entertainment that will cheer up the American audience.

If you're a qualified investor interested in seeing a business plan and becoming an active partner, send us an e-mail at

ashishsood997@yahoo.com

 

If you're a filmmaker, invest in movies, not stocks. The Stock Market is for gamblers; gamble instead on your own talents and dreams; at least you'll have some record of who you were and what your times were like; it's history.

Oct. 4, 2008

The second major point in an investors disclaimer notice is to recommend that the investor reading your prospectus should check with their tax accountant or attorney before investing in your movie, the first one being that the investor should realize that he or she could lose their entire investment. Have you ever known a tax accountant, attorney or financial advisor who recommends investing in movies? I sure haven't.

The first time I tried raising money, I asked a millionaire acquaintance of mine if he'd invest in my movie. He said, "Film is a crapshoot." I'd never played craps, but I didn't have enough experience to answer him. I thought what does filmmaking have to do with craps?

Take a look at the chart above. If you'd invested in the Stock Market in 1997, and didn't sell your stocks, at the end of 2002 you'd be exactly where you were five years before. If you bought your stocks on margin, you wouldn't even have received any dividends. Your money would be tied up for seven years, and not only that, but you'd be worried sick about your investments everyday, by the looks of that chart; it's enough to give a man a heart attack. You may have sold your stocks and blown the money a long time ago also.

You would've invested your money in companies where nobody cared who you were and what you thought. Now, why would you invest your money in other companies if you have your own dreams, desires and plans? You should've considered investing in your own business, your own health and well-being. Sure, the stock market provides you with an opportunity to prosper off of other people's enterprise, but these companies don't really represent who you are. They're often run and owned by people for whom making a buck is all that counts. And the SEC and the US Congress, all they care about is that these companies play by the rules, but they don't guarantee that they do anything for you personally. So, if you're a filmmaker, why would you want to invest your money in giant companies that are owned by people from all over the world, people that don't even share your values, certainly not your artistic concerns.

If you're a filmmaker, invest in your own dreams. If you want to gamble, there's Las Vegas. But why would you want to gamble. Filmmaking is not a gamble. It's a risk you take, sure, but at least you're taking a risk with your own talents. You've always loved movies, (otherwise why are you a filmmaker?) and you should believe in the films that you make.

Take another look at the chart above. Stock brokers make a commission whether the market goes up or down. So it doesn't matter whether you buy or sell, they make money. In fact, they don't make any money if the market moves sideways, because then nobody buys or sells. If you buy shares in a company that's worth ten dollars a share today and stays that way for another five years, what have you gained? Especially if the company doesn't pay dividends, and most companies don't these days, such as the technology sector -- why would you buy stocks in the first place?

Another thing to keep in mind is the rise in the stock market in the last few years is due to new companies going public. Maybe it's a cause to celebrate that the stock market keeps going up and up. Disasters come and go, but we seem to recover and move even higher. The stock market has now moved up over the 11,000 point mark. Hurray! What does it mean to the investor? It's an illusion that the stock market keeps going up. The truth of the matter is that stock brokers keep pumping in more companies into the stock market, and other companies go bankrupt and disappear from the Dow, so more companies are formed, more IPOs are floated on the stock market -- that's what it is. That's why the stock market keeps going up and up, because the brokers pump more companies and shares into the stock market, and they do it faster than the companies whose stocks become worthless. Millions of dollars disappear from the market every year, to be replaced by new money from new investors. You might think I'm exaggerating, but I've seen companies go under, haven't you? What happened to their shareholders money? Of course, there are people who know how to make money in the stock market. They know which company shares to buy and which company to ignore. The brokers themselves are playing the market; they buy and sell shares themselves, and since they make commissions as well, most of them make a hefty living. If you're not a broker or haven't studied the market as a professional, then chances are that you'll lose money. That's my opinion.

I'm not encouraging you to invest in my film productions, but what's so special about other industries? Movies are the number one export of the United States. Some of the riches people in the world own movie companies or TV networks. So many people invest in real estate, that it's not all that easy to make money in it. It takes a long time to realize a profit. Meanwhile your money just sits there. You can borrow on it, take out one mortgage after another, and you'll qualify for a lot of credit cards, but then there comes a day when you're forced to sell, or even worse, when you can't maintain the payments and the lenders foreclose on you.

With the Stock Market always fighting to stay credible, many savvy investors are beginning to wonder about the viability of stocks in this day and age. It's a well known fact that the stock market has been artificially supported by the Federal Reserve Board pumping paper money into it and reporting positively regarding its health (if this were a homeowner he'd be long foreclosed on); but the numbers for the market are still up there. You might ask, "what's with that?" Well, the brokers keep floating more public offerings and with the interest rates low, new investors keep coming in, like the Stock Market was a Las Vegas casino. But at least with the casinos there is entertainment, what does one get investing in companies that neither appreciate nor pay dividends?

Please, do ask your tax accountant and your attorney. Ask them if it's okay for you to invest in my movies. Check out my track record. Ask them what is the best investment for improving your life style. Let me know what they say

Invest in Films