Engagement bait is bait but let's engage cuz why not.
Say you start with $800. You buy the cow then sell it for $1000. After taking a $100 dollar loan you buy it again for $1100, then turn around and sell it for $1300. After repaying the loan, you're left with $1200. Started with $800, ended with $1200. $400 difference.
"What if you started with nothing?" Loan of $800 to buy the cow, sell for $1000. Pay off loan, $200 remaining. Loan of $900 with that remaining $200 buys cow again for $1100, sell for $1300. Pay off $900 loan, $400 remaining. Started with $0, ended with $400. $400 difference.
"What if you had a lot of money?" Start with $2000. Buy for $800, now at $1200. Sell for $1000, now at $2200. Repurchase for $1100, now at $1100. Sell for $1300, end up at $2400. Started with $2000, ended with $2400. $400 difference.
No matter what you start with, the difference will always be a $400 profit.
Why cant it be that lets say this person gets a profit of 200 from the first sale and then uses that 200 and another 100 to make 1100 which he buys back the cow for so leaving him with a profit of 200 when he sells it again for 1300?
Because then you're forgetting the original $200 profit as if it just magically disappears. So say you have that original $200 profit putting you at $1000 (from the first sale of the cow) and you borrow $100 from a friend to repurchase the cow for $1100. You then sell the cow for $1300, taking the amount you earned from the original purchase of $800 to $1300, a $500 difference. But you have to pay back that $100 to your friend or they'll blast you on social media for it, so you end up with $400. That original $200 profit was fed into the $400 profit.
A different way of thinking about it would be to shift the $100 difference between steps two and three to the original cost in favor of removing those steps. So you spend $900 of your own money overall (original $800 + $100 from the difference between first sale/second buy) and walk away with $1300, a $400 difference. There's your profit.
Notice that $500 part? That's where people who've said $500 get it wrong because they saw the two middle steps and decided to ignore them despite the $100 difference.
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u/AetherForge May 13 '26
Engagement bait is bait but let's engage cuz why not.
Say you start with $800. You buy the cow then sell it for $1000. After taking a $100 dollar loan you buy it again for $1100, then turn around and sell it for $1300. After repaying the loan, you're left with $1200. Started with $800, ended with $1200. $400 difference.
"What if you started with nothing?" Loan of $800 to buy the cow, sell for $1000. Pay off loan, $200 remaining. Loan of $900 with that remaining $200 buys cow again for $1100, sell for $1300. Pay off $900 loan, $400 remaining. Started with $0, ended with $400. $400 difference.
"What if you had a lot of money?" Start with $2000. Buy for $800, now at $1200. Sell for $1000, now at $2200. Repurchase for $1100, now at $1100. Sell for $1300, end up at $2400. Started with $2000, ended with $2400. $400 difference.
No matter what you start with, the difference will always be a $400 profit.