A mathematics student who just started university wanted to do everything right and secure his future with a smart investment. He inherited a fortune from his grandmother, over 730,000 euros, and wanted to invest particularly wisely: it was to be Intel, a safe investment. What he didn’t know was that he was investing at completely the wrong time. For Intel had never had a worse day on the stock market in its 56-year history than August 2, 2024.

This is what the student said: In a reddit post from August 1, the young man explains his situation:

• He is studying mathematics in his first year at university and inherited $800,000 from his grandmother. She passed away two months ago. He is doing well; his parents are paying for his university, and he doesn’t need the money.
• Since he knows that many people squander their inheritance with foolish investments, he wanted to invest his inheritance wisely and promised his parents: He wouldn’t spend a cent of that money but invest everything in his future. $100,000 would go into the account, and he bought stocks of the company Intel for $700,000 right at the stock market opening on August 1. He intended to hold these stocks for at least 10 years.
• He then listed 11 reasons why Intel was a safe choice. The American tech giant spends a lot of money on research, is crisis-proof, and has positioned itself extremely well. In the first quarter of 2024, the company had also grown by 10%. He likes the stock, and currently, it’s very cheap.

Intel’s stock crashes almost immediately after he bought the shares

What went wrong? Even safe stocks are subject to price fluctuations:

• The price of Intel on August 1 was still €27.72.
• Today, on August 9, the company’s stock stands at €18.71.

So the young man has already lost 32.5% of his inheritance in stock value within 7 days. That amounts to about $227,500.

Why has the price collapsed so much? Intel may not be as crisis-proof as it seemed.

First came the news that the semiconductor giant was laying off 15% of its workforce.

On Friday, August 2, Intel then lost $30 billion in market value in one of the worst declines of the stock ever. The stock was sold en masse after weak financial figures were reported, and investors wondered if the investment in artificial intelligence would pay off.

The loss was the worst in the company’s history. In 1980, there was already a major drop – back then Intel had fallen by 18% in one day.

The price of Intel fell on that day, just one day after the math student fully invested in Intel, by 30%.

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“My parents still don’t know what I’ve done”

What’s the discussion? A bit sheepishly, the young man admits: “Okay, that was definitely the wrong day to enter.”

The last two days have been the “scariest” of his life, he writes on the evening of August 2.

His parents still do not know that he has gambled away a third of his inheritance. But when he talks to them, they can clearly see how stressed he is.

This is how it continues: He still wants to hold the stock for 10 years – now it will be tough. He understands that.

Otherwise, he has little choice but to listen to the mockery and comments of other participants on reddit: “IT’S NOT MY FAULT,” he shouts at one point.

What did he do wrong? One of the most important rules that everyone who invests money should know is: Diversify your portfolio. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket; instead, choose several companies, several types of investments, and several countries to spread your risk more broadly.

In hindsight, there are of course even more recommendations that could be given:

• He should not have jumped in all at once but gradually built up his position.
• He should have known when financial figures would be published and waited for the numbers to come out before entering.

But ultimately, those are recommendations that can easily be given with the knowledge of the past days and the results. If Intel’s financial figures had been great, his approach might have been just right.

Stocks, even those seemingly safe, are an investment that can potentially keep you awake at night. Because the invested money is “in the fire of the market” and can sometimes get scorched or burned. Cryptocurrencies are considered even riskier. This hard lesson had to be learned the hard way by the German streamer Papaplatte: Twitch streamer Papaplatte sleeps one night, but loses 50,000 euros – Here’s how it happened

The title image is a symbolic image. It comes from Pexels from Pixabay.

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The Microsoft Flight Simulator is considered one of the most popular and best simulators ever. A new version is finally coming in 2024, bringing features that have not been present in the previous iterations of the series.

What makes the Flight Simulator so special:

• You control various airplanes in Microsoft’s flight simulator all over the world. The game is so realistic that many fans first go looking for their own house.
• Despite fierce competition in the genre, such as from the Farming Simulator, the Flight Simulator is regarded by many as the best simulator ever.
• The latest version was already released in 2020. The Flight Simulator 2024 will be released on November 19, 2024.

This is the new feature: In an interview with PCGamer, the head of Microsoft Flight Simulator Jorge Neumann discusses the new version of his game. One of the major innovations: You can now exit the plane.

Neumann mentions that you can leave the aircraft and go for a walk wherever you please:

You can now, in 2024, leave the aircraft and walk around. You can literally go on your favorite mountain path to your favorite cabin in the mountains. Sit by the lake. Watch the sunset.

The ability to exit the flying vehicle is already available in Star Citizen. This Space Legs allow for landing on a planet and exploring it – something that enables extensive exploration and is among the most popular features of the space game.

The Flight Simulator aims to become a “digital twin” of Earth. The goal is to have every ship, every oil rig, and every lighthouse in the world included in the game.

“We see every tree on Earth”

Neumann explains that the linking with Bing Maps and data from LiDAR scans ensures a highly detailed representation of the Earth. LiDAR stands for “Light detection and ranging or Light imaging, detection and ranging” and is a laser radar that, according to Neumann, creates a sampling point every 50 centimeters to 1 meter.

The chief explains:

We see every tree on Earth. We let machine learning check everything, and then we know where every tree is located, even down to the point of what type it likely is. And then we plant the trees, literally billions of trees.

Corrections will be made through patches and feedback from the community. If there is, for example, a forest in the Flight Simulator in Iceland that does not actually exist, it will be removed immediately.

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The game should not become unnecessarily large. Neumann speaks of “50 GB or less” because much of the data will come from the cloud. For comparison: The Flight Simulator 2020 came with 130 GB and would have, if all subsequent add-ons were included, ended up with 500 GB or several terabytes of data, according to Neumann.

Simulators are a popular genre, especially in Germany. The Farming Simulator is a big deal here. And not just among gamers; even the actual economy has an interest in the farming game: A €30 game from Switzerland has completely changed how farmers buy tractors today.

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In Helldivers 2 there is currently a topic that is concerning the entire community, and that is the new nerfs from the major update “Escalation of Freedom”. One weapon has been nerfed so severely that it is now unrealistic.

Why is the community upset? On Reddit, Discord, and Steam, there is a negative mood since the new major update of Helldivers 2 “Escalation of Freedom” was released. The reason for this is again significant nerfs that dampen the fun of the game.

The worst nerf is the one to the flamethrower, a powerful stratagem that players like to use against the bugs. The weapon was considered a top choice and could even defeat the assailants with just small bursts of fire. The weapon was too powerful, Arrowhead noticed this, and ultimately the decisive nerf followed.

However, the weapon was not only nerfed; it was also adjusted in terms of design and now looks much more unrealistic in use than at release.

Flamethrower was considered realistic, now it’s just a joke

What has upset the fans? Generally, the nerf policy. Helldivers is a PvE game where you go to war against opponents of democracy and defeat them while completing missions.

Fans want to feel powerful in such a game and eradicate large hordes of enemies – this fantasy could be partly fulfilled by the flamethrower, especially when facing countless bugs.

Additionally, the weapon was represented as a realistic combat tool, as confirmed by weapon expert Jonathan Ferguson from the Royal Armouries Museum (via youtube.com). Everything fit together, but Arrowhead viewed the weapon as too powerful and nerfed it in its latest patch.

However, the weapon was not only nerfed regarding its effectiveness in combat; the spray animation of the war weapon was also adjusted and altered so that it no longer looks realistic. This does not sit well with many players.

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What are the fans saying about the nerf? They are angry that weapons which are supposed to be fun are being nerfed. The flamethrower in its original form was celebrated; whoever made the decision for the nerf should play with this lousy weapon for a while to understand how bad the decision was. Here’s what can be found on Reddit:

• “And now it’s just another generic flamethrower from a video game that doesn’t work like a real flamethrower.” – EnclaveNature
• “Yes, it seems they replaced our NAPALM with PROPANE!” – SovietNumber
• “Whoever developed the flamethrower Flam-40 deserves a medal, and whoever decided it needed such a drastic nerf should use it on Diff 10 with Randoms for 8 hours and tell us how much fun it is.” – usmcBrad93
• “It’s not even about a power trip. No one wants a ‘Win for free’ button, but no one wants their weapons to be crap. It’s not that difficult.” – JerbearCuddles
• “They massacred our flamer into this generic POS.” – Umiva

What do you think about the nerfs in Helldivers 2? Are you actively involved and does the nerf bother you, or do you not care because you are looking for a challenge? Let us know in the comments! More about Helldivers 2 can be found here: Player accuses Palworld and Helldivers 2 of low player counts on Steam, calling them “flash in the pan” – developer counters: “Are player counts even important?”

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