I guess you could define a bet on a roulette wheel as a “heptatrigesimal contract over outcomes on future events that should be regulated by the CFTC” but it would still be gambling. 
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Don’t laugh at the messenger 
So:
- the CFTC and google say off-exchange event-based binary options contracts, so insider trading > commodities fraud.
- defense says offshore gambling. Financial regulation has no relevance here, nothing to see here, keep moving.
This will be an interesting story to follow. I’d bet 2 beers that this guy will be used to make an example to the public. But, maybe his lawyers are too good, so I pay 2 beers.
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I think the problem is, that even if it is gambling, it doesn’t mean they are mutually exclusive. Maybe the prosecution agree it is gambling, but it is also a CFTC regulated activity.
I guess people can gamble on stock market and options markets too…
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Sir, on the stock market it’s called investing and on the options markets it’s called hedging.
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Aka socially accepted morally and consciously blessed gambling. With some theory, math and something else thrown in as support … perhaps a corolary might be Actuarial Science …
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With regard to the word “science” I’ll resort to my standard insult: any science that needs the word “science” to describe itself is not a science. There’s math, physics, chemistry, biology … and then there’s social sciences (including economics) and possibly others.
Sadly, liberal arts also don’t require the word “science” to describe themselves, but in their defense, their meaning of “liberal” means you’re financially independent to pursue this as a hobby, i.e. it’s also not a science.
Goofy, always eager to cross bridges over wide rivers to make new friends.
Edit: Sorry, the above is slightly off topic, but someone else started the fight with mentioning gambling.
Goofy points fingers …
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Apropos off topic topics: Vontobel zieht nach Baar: Das macht den Zuger Hauptsitz attraktiv (paywalled).
English translation of NZZ’s own AI summary:
Summary
• Bank Vontobel will relocate its headquarters from Zurich to Baar in the canton of Zug by 2030 and build a new campus there for 1,500 employees.
• According to Vontobel, tax relief was not the primary reason; space for growth and better collaboration were more important.
• Zurich remains an important location, with a new client base at Bleicherweg and unchanged IT infrastructure.
Translation: it’s for tax reasons.
If it were up to me, I’d have left the city for a neighboring town already maybe about 5 years ago. Sadly – and although we live on the edge of town – my wife won’t and probably never will.
<redacted further political comments>
It’s common knowledge that among all regions in Switzerland, Zug happens to have the highest availability of land to build a new campus for 1’500 employees.
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Oh, I would totally play that card, too.
I admire your additional spin of “it’s common knowledge that …”
Vontobel employs over 2k people globally, the majority in Switzerland, and the majority of that in Zurich. They’ve been in Zurich since they were founded almost 100 years ago (or more than that depending on how you count).
Building a campus in Zug where both senior officers and lowly employees mingle better by sharing the campus – as reported by said NZZ article and originally probably in the press statement by Vontobel – is just pure and beautifully smelling BS IMNSHO.
Visit their new campus when it’s built and occupied and observe how the two classes mingle … they’ll mix like oil and water (as with every company that size).
If you need office space in, say, 2005, for … say, 1k people in or near Zurich, and you’re Google, you’ll find it in abandoned industrial properties like the Hürlimann areal in Zurich. Of course, taxes are none of your concern because as a company you’re taxed in Ireland instead of Zurich.
If you need further office space in, say, 2015, for … say, 5k people near or around Zurich, and you’re Google, you’ll find it in Europaallee, near the main station. Of course, taxes are none of your concern because as a company you’re taxed in Ireland.
I would bet you a bowl full of juicy dog food that if you were a major company in the city of Zurich looking for a couple hundred or even a few thousand of office seats in the city, you’d find them. Just alone the recent UBS-CS deal means that a thousand (or maybe many more) of desks have or will become available in Uetlihof.
Thanks to Vontobel leaving the city, add another thousand desks on top of that.
The stock market is probably the biggest gambling casino in the world.
I call my second strategy “the gambling strategy” because I do exactly that: gambling to take home a few bucks from fellow gamblers.
Thinking about what I do there maybe cheating of others does help. Insiders buy before it is clear why a stock has to rise and I buy when it is cheap and rising. Then I sell if it does not rise further. That is all…
Yep, it is already September, another month has passed. Everything is at all-time high, nice.
Gambling strategy:
Margin multiplier 125.52%
Performance YTD: 31.9%, CAGR since 2020 28.77%
Table:
Positions:
And the dividend strategy:
Portfolio (finviz)
Dividends received from T, GIS, ABBV, O, CAT and APAM.
No trades.
Margin multiplier at 101.63%
Carry premium: 7.06%
Performance YTD 18.74%, CAGR since 2014 11.83%, since 2020 15.06%.
Positions, dividends and sectors:
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Today wise.com does invite me for lunch, first interest payment in Euro ever. Wonder how I have to declare that, does not look like they did distract any kind of withholding tax…
As Spanish banks are expensive like hell I do almost all my Euro banking with wise. Except for cash, there I have a free dkb.de account.
You definitely missed out on many previous paella, tortilla and gazpacho
I have been receiving monthly micro payment from wise for a while now. And every 3-4 months there is a debit of 0.01 EUR fee for this interest.
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Dividends in August: ~$9.45k (+9.9% versus August 2025)
Dividend changes announced in August
- Community Healthcare Trust Inc: -31.25%
- Legal & General Group Plc: +1.96%
- Altria: +4.72%
- Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited: +8.33%
- Wolters Kluwer NV: +8.6%
- Capital Southwest Corp: +18.78%
Performance
- YTD: 23.9%
- CAGR (since inception in 2019, TWR): 15.7%
Trades
| Ticker | Date | Buy | Sell |
|---|---|---|---|
| VXUS | 08/04/2026 | 100 | |
| AMS:AD | 08/04/2026 | 100 | |
| AMS:VPK | 08/04/2026 | 100 | |
| AMT | 08/05/2026 | 100 | |
| TSE:CNQ | 08/07/2026 | 100 | |
| TSE:PPL | 08/07/2026 | 100 | |
| VXUS | 08/07/2026 | 100 | |
| GPN | 08/13/2026 | 155.3463 | |
| TSE:CNQ | 08/13/2026 | 100 | |
| LON:RIO | 08/13/2026 | 100 | |
| JNJ | 08/17/2026 | 80 | |
| CMI | 08/17/2026 | 20 | |
| TD | 08/17/2026 | 100 | |
| INGR | 08/17/2026 | 100 | |
| EIX | 08/17/2026 | 100 | |
| PEP | 08/17/2026 | 100 | |
| KDP | 08/17/2026 | 100 | |
| AMT | 08/17/2026 | 100 | |
| AMS:NN | 08/18/2026 | 100 | |
| VXUS | 08/18/2026 | 100 | |
| GPN | 08/18/2026 | 550 | |
| AM:AD | 08/19/2026 | 100 | |
| TCSO | 08/20/2026 | 100 | |
| MCD | 08/20/2026 | 10 | |
| J36.SI | 08/21/2026 | 100 | |
| CSCO | 08/21/2026 | 150 | |
| EIX | 08/21/2026 | 200 | |
| SWX:PGHN | 08/25/2026 | 10 | |
| UPS | 08/25/2026 | 10 | |
| IRM | 08/25/2026 | 110 | |
| AMS:WKL | 08/25/2026 | 100 | |
| VXUS | 08/25/2026 | 165 | |
| OMC | 08/26/2026 | 40 | |
| FLNG | 08/26/2026 | 100 | |
| MAIN | 08/27/2026 | 4 | |
| PAX | 08/28/2026 | 200 | |
| MCD | 08/31/2026 | 10 | |
| O | 08/31/2026 | 30 | |
| VICI | 08/31/2026 | 100 |
My (dividend growth) strategy is always mostly up to date and linked at the previous post in this topic - #11 by Phil_MCR.
Option Trades (outside my dividend strategy)
| Ticker | Date | Buy | Sell |
|---|---|---|---|
| EIX Apr26’27 45 Put | 08/31/2026 | 1 |
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24% YTD is insane for a dividend portfolio! 
BTW, are you a FLO bag holder? I was looking at the chart today 
No. While it was featured just about a year ago as the “stock of the month” for the Zahltagsstrategie (a dividend growth portfolio) by my former mentor (who passed away exactly one month ago – he did not even reach 65!), I never really liked Flowers Foods as the dividend payout ratio looked already very high and unhealthy at the time.
And indeed did FLO cut their dividend.
I’m going to jinx my position in General Mills, but I always liked it better than FLO.
Wise seem to deduct 30% withholding tax on cash back, you can download a statement at the end of the year
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didn’t see any WHT in my last year statement, but i didn’t really look much in detail
NVDA is up almost 5% today. Goofy’s portfolio is up 0.5% today.
On days like this Goofy puts on his monkey suit …
… and feels as dumb as he obviously is.
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Not as dumb as when I shorted nvda…