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A comment on S.E.C. Gives Small Investors Access to Equity Crowdfunding. Parent comment

Re:S.E.C. Gives Small Investors Access to Equity Crowdfunding by david927 on Friday October 30, 2015 @09:05PM (#10481412)
Yes, literally, that's true. What I'm saying is that the odds are known and low, whereas with investing the odds are never known, and that itself is a leap.
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Re:S.E.C. Gives Small Investors Access to Equity Crowdfunding by jsprogrammer on Friday October 30, 2015 @09:15PM (#10481435)
It is an interesting point, but it does contradict your prior claim.

One problem I see is that an investor may actually be dealing with a lottery-like game without knowing. That is, a particular investment may have actual, calculable odds (would depend on the business model) that are as worse as the lottery model, but are, however, unknown (or even unknowable) to an investor.

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Re:S.E.C. Gives Small Investors Access to Equity Crowdfunding by Dylan16807 on Saturday October 31, 2015 @12:14PM (#10483100)
Even a truly visibly awful business has better odds than a lottery.
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Re:S.E.C. Gives Small Investors Access to Equity Crowdfunding by jsprogrammer on Saturday October 31, 2015 @02:04PM (#10483487)
I can't imagine that any late investors into Madoff's business had even a chance at a positive outcome. Assuming the lottery ball machine isn't rigged, there is still a chance that your numbers could come up.
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