#rebalancing strategy

[priyashareindia9]

Since the beginning of the stock market, new methods of opportunities have been introduced in each decade. There are indices like the Sensex and Nifty, which have become top indices to watch and observe in India. With the hike in online trading, retail investors seem to increase their interest in investing in the financial market. The index fund rebalancing is essential in order to update index funds over the rise or fall of nifty or other indices. Having a basic understanding of the function of an index fund will help investors invest in a smart way.

[wealthydummy]

From Fintech to Pharma: Rebalancing My Stock Portfolio with MRK and SOFI Moves

This post will be a quick one. I just want to update you on some minor adjustments that I made to my portfolio. These changes took place on Thursday this week and I’m sharing them as soon as possible. The current market environment is a bit dynamic, so I believe that I should be flexible with my investing strategy. I’m staying focused on the long term, but I’m trying to take advantage of the…

[definedge99]

Volume Weighted Trend Rider | Trading Strategy

The market is currently bullish, presenting a golden opportunity for traders to identify and invest in trending stocks, potentially leading to significant profits.In this video, Brijesh highlights the strategy where the bullish stock is trending with higher volumes, giving you an edge of strength and bullish momentum. Using Trade Point or RZONE, you can scan the stock list in Daily, Weekly and Monthly timeframes.

[bellwether21]

How to Rebalance Your Portfolio – A 2025 Guide to Smarter Investing

If you've ever felt like your investments are drifting off-course, you're not alone. Market volatility, changing life goals, and new financial products all influence your asset mix over time. That's where the need to rebalance your portfolio comes in. Think of it as giving your financial plan a periodic health check — and in 2025, it's more crucial than ever. For those seeking a professional edge, portfolio management in Gurgaon has emerged as a reliable solution to ensure that rebalancing is timely, goal-oriented, and tax-efficient.

Let’s dive into the how, when, and why of portfolio rebalancing with a step-by-step, actionable guide curated especially for Indian investors and anyone looking for expert portfolio management services.

What Does It Mean to Rebalance Your Portfolio?

At its core, rebalancing is about restoring your investment mix to its original or desired asset allocation. Say you started with 60% equity and 40% debt. After a year of stock market growth, your portfolio might look like 75% equity and 25% debt — exposing you to more risk than intended.

To rebalance your portfolio, you'd sell some equities and reinvest in debt to bring the proportions back in line. This keeps your strategy grounded in your risk appetite and financial goals.

When Should You Rebalance Your Portfolio?

There are no one-size-fits-all answers, but here are three smart checkpoints:

Time-Based Rebalancing: Set a fixed schedule — quarterly, bi-annually, or annually.

Threshold-Based Rebalancing: Rebalance when an asset class deviates by more than, say, 5-10% from your target allocation.

Life Event Rebalancing: Marriage, retirement, starting a business, or receiving inheritance — all are reasons to rebalance your portfolio.

As per a 2025 Morningstar report, investors who rebalanced annually had 10-15% better risk-adjusted returns than those who didn’t.

Step-by-Step: How to Rebalance Your Portfolio in 2025

1. Review Your Target Asset Allocation

Revisit your goals — is your 2021 asset mix still relevant today? Use tools or consult experts in Portfolio Management in Gurgaon to redefine allocations aligned with current financial goals.

2. Assess Current Portfolio Weights

Compare your current allocation with your target mix. Use a simple spreadsheet or a professional PMS dashboard.

3. Calculate the Deviations

Where are you over-invested or under-invested? The difference will guide your next moves.

4. Strategize Buy-Sell Actions

Apply portfolio rebalancing strategies like:

Sell Overperforming Assets: Book profits while rebalancing.

Invest in Underweighted Assets: Especially if they’re undervalued or long-term plays.

5. Keep Tax Implications in Mind

Short-term capital gains can eat into profits. Use tax harvesting and expert advice to rebalance in a tax-efficient way.

6. Monitor & Repeat

Rebalancing is not a one-time event. In fact, with increased access to global assets, dynamic products, and Indian mutual funds, it's advisable to rebalance your portfolio at least once a year.

Top Portfolio Rebalancing Strategies to Try in 2025

Static Rebalancing: Stick to a fixed interval regardless of market performance.

Dynamic Rebalancing: Adjust based on market forecasts and economic cycles — ideal if you have access to Portfolio Management Services.

Cash Flow Rebalancing: Instead of selling assets, use new investments to restore balance — especially tax-efficient for long-term investors.

These portfolio rebalancing strategies can help reduce risk, optimize returns, and avoid the temptation of emotional investing.

Why Professional Help Matters

DIY investing is on the rise, but rebalancing without expertise can lead to poor timing, tax blunders, or unintentional risks. Firms offering portfolio management in Gurgaon provide data-backed decisions, periodic rebalancing alerts, and tax-optimized strategies tailored to your life goals.

What is Portfolio Rebalancing and Why is It Important? Rebalancing your portfolio means adjusting the weight of assets in your investment portfolio to match your original or updated financial goals. It helps control risk, maintain asset allocation, and align your investments with market conditions and personal milestones.

BellWether – Your Personal CFO

Rebalancing your portfolio isn’t just about moving numbers — it’s about moving closer to your life goals. At BellWether, we bring personalized portfolio management services backed by deep research, disciplined strategies, and data-driven insights. Whether you’re building wealth, preserving it, or planning a legacy, our experts in portfolio management in Gurgaon are here to guide you every step of the way.

FAQs

1. Is it okay to rebalance a portfolio during market volatility?

Yes, market volatility is often the best time to rebalance your portfolio, as it helps maintain your risk level. However, consider transaction costs and taxes before making moves.

2. How do I know if my portfolio needs rebalancing?

If any asset class exceeds or drops below your target by more than 5-10%, it's time to rebalance. Regular reviews, at least once or twice a year, are also a good practice.

3. Can rebalancing hurt returns in the short term?

Possibly, yes. Rebalancing might sell off assets that are still rising. But over time, it reduces risk and leads to more consistent returns by staying aligned with your goals.

4. Should SIP investors rebalance their portfolios?

Absolutely. SIPs automate investments but don’t adjust asset allocation. You still need to rebalance your portfolio periodically to manage risk and optimize returns.

5. How can BellWether help me with portfolio rebalancing?

BellWether offers tailored portfolio management services, including automated rebalancing alerts, tax optimization, and expert consultations to help you grow and protect your wealth effectively.

[curiousquill1]

Modern portfolio management companies focus on optimizing investments through strategic asset allocation, risk management, and diversification. They utilize advanced technology, provide personalized financial solutions, and ensure regular portfolio monitoring and rebalancing. These companies emphasize transparency, ethical practices, and adapting to market trends to meet client needs while driving financial growth.

[ajamouja]

[probablyasocialecologist]

The degrowthers are right: There needs to be a lot less physical stuff produced, especially in the way of fossil fuels, and, for anyone with the least sense of justice, this means rich countries consuming less and poor countries consuming more. Such an apparent threat of rich-country austerity meanwhile contains, in truth, the promise of abundance: fewer but more durable goods, less work and more leisure. (Already in the 1990s, the French-Austrian ecosocialist André Gorz wanted to “build the civilization of liberated time” in place of that of wage labor.) The fact that any such global rebalancing of consumption patterns can’t plausibly take place so long as the rich countries of the Global North dictate world history is one more reason that degrowth remains a dead letter under capitalism. It is not, however, the working classes of the Global North that must drastically curtail their lifestyles: The world’s richest 1 percent are responsible for as much carbon emissions as the poorest two-thirds of the global population. Much of the work of degrowth would be accomplished by the dispossession and destruction of the class represented by this sole percentile. As for the idolaters of growth, their god has not only failed but, Cronus-like, has started devouring its children as if these were so many chicken wings. “Growth” fantasizes one kind of fake substance, and “degrowth” another; real intelligence demands attention to how the ingredients of this world are different, not the same. Even so, the advocates of degrowth (a more attractive English word might be Samuel Beckett’s “lessness”) can boast of a sounder moral and political intuition than can the usual apologists for growth: Less stuff, more life! Such an argument may be obviated soon enough, either way, by the specter not of degrowth communism, but of prolonged capitalist contraction. Voters and politicians whistling past the graveyard being prepared for our children may have neglected to consult a recent article in Nature which holds that “the world economy is committed to an income reduction of 19% within the next 26 years independent of future emissions choices” (emphasis mine). Important factors in this bleak outlook include the declining agricultural yields and the massive and unpredictable damage to infrastructure attendant on climate collapse. In other words, even if carbon emissions are somehow reduced through the magic of the market, climate change can be expected to cause about $38 trillion in damages annually by the mid-century, enough to render overall economic growth infeasible. The choice facing the 21st century, then, is likely not between degrowth and growth. It is more likely between a form of capitalist contraction in which prosperity endures for a few but evaporates for the rest of us, and some kind of socialist or communist degrowth in which the well-being of everyone in general prevails over the wealth of anyone in particular. The precise politics of egalitarian degrowth are no more clear to me than they are to Saitō. But universal crisis will license strategies that theory alone could never discover.

26 August 2024

[salty-tang]

For the Record 3: The Summit (multi- chapter series)

Congressman!Bucky Barnes x Congresswoman!Reader (mostly canon compliant)

Chapter Summary: You and Bucky attend the party summit where tension comes to a boil as Capitol optics, hallway silences, and an ill-timed photo threaten to derail everything. When a lockdown hits mid-crisis, you and Bucky are separated and leaving strategy, suspicion, and something unspoken hanging in the air.

⁕⁕⁕

a canon compliant congressman bucky x congresswoman reader fic set somewhere between tfatws and thunderbolts, chronicling congressman barnes' first term as a representative.

Warnings/ tags: Slow Burn, Political Drama, Light Angst with a happy ending, Mutual Pining, Bucky Doesn't Think He Deserves Good Things, Hurt/Comfort But Make It Legislative, Secret Missions with Legislative Consequences, The Interns Have Theories, Canon-Typical Violence, Congressman Bucky Barnes, Congresswoman Reader, author is not american and barely gets american politics, no use of y/n, this is the plot heavy long form fic

Word count: 6.2k

A/N: i don't have working titles, but i did write in caps and bold and italics at the top of my word doc for this chapter 'ANGST IS JUST ANOTHER TYPE OF LOVE'

ps: AO3 is my main platform for this work, tumblr is just getting the reupload

For the Record masterpost || AO3 || congressman bucky masterpost

The vote may have failed, but the Act lives on as a stalled motion, not a buried one. There will be opportunities for another version to rewrite, and another uphill battle to get it passed.

So as the weeks pass, no one talks about the elephant in the room, at least not directly to you. Bucky Barnes still shows up. He's not always on time, and never with an explanation when he is. At this point, his absences feel less like a momentary lapse and more like a defining trait that is weaving into the version of him that does shows up.

And in that post-Blip Housing and Urban Recovery subcommittee, he takes his seat beside you like he never went missing, like he hadn’t been gone the one moment it mattered. You still hand him your memos without comment, and he studies them like the answers to you are buried deep in the margins.

The folder that he dropped off that night – damp, creased, just a little too late – still lives in your drawer, unopened. You tell yourself there hasn’t been time, and that if it truly mattered, he would’ve followed up. But the truth is much simpler and colder – you haven’t looked because you’re afraid of what it might confirm. Maybe he always meant to be late. Maybe he never at all. Regardless, it was never going to change the outcome anyway.

Whatever had begun to take shape between you, whatever rhythm you'd started to slip into, has solidified into something much more restrained. You made space for him – carefully, deliberately – and he didn’t step into it.

Now you both act like the silence is calculated and that the restraint is a shared strategy, not a shield. It's an understanding built on omissions, on the fiction that if no one names it, then maybe it never really happened.

But your office notices.

The briefing packet you’d made for him – color-coded, annotated, quietly hopeful – sits untouched in your drawer for three days before Mills, without comment, files it under ‘Deferred Motions’ and closes the cabinet a little too gently.

Devon, for once, doesn’t offer commentary. They look at the final vote tally, then look at you, and decide – wisely – not to say whatever was about to be said. The abstention was a vote, even if it didn’t count. And in this House, what you fail to do speaks just as loudly as what you choose to do.

Even Derek, who rarely entertains gossip, doesn’t hide his opinion when he removes Bucky’s name from a shared project list. “Let’s not overextend ourselves,” is all he says.

No fanfare. Just quiet rebalancing.

You hadn’t asked anyone to take sides. But maybe that’s the thing about teams – the good ones notice where the weight falls, and adjust accordingly.

Whatever it was between you, whatever space had started to open, is now a seam pressed closed.

And then comes the Summit.

⁕⁕⁕

The New America Leadership Summit is, in theory, a celebration of civic renewal. In practice, it is yet another battlefield with name tags.

Held at the Hay-Adams Hotel (because nothing says 'the people’s work' like $400-a-plate catering and oil paintings of dead presidents) the summit is the Party’s annual flex. A who’s-who of rising stars, powerbrokers, legacy donors, policy wonks, and just enough idealistic newcomers to keep the brand shiny. It’s meant to showcase unity, sharpen talking points, and maybe float a few names for foreign delegations while everyone pretends not to jockey for the next leadership tier.

You arrive flanked by your office, dressed in a navy twill pantsuit – straight-shouldered and clean-lined, with sharp notch lapels and patch pockets at the front. The blazer is just oversized enough to make the whole look intentional. It’s Capitol-appropriate and fashion-adjacent – structured enough to signal power, tailored enough not to offend tradition, and modern enough to be noticed.

Derek takes one look at the floor layout and starts recalibrating his strategy before you’ve even taken your coat off. His tablet glows with red-line names and shifting allegiances and he’s softly barking manoeuvres to the rest of your staff. You take a moment to breathe before he turns his attention on you.

The ballroom is all antique opulence and strategic lighting – warm without being soft, golden without being forgiving. Velvet banners with the party insignia hang at precise intervals. The walls are panelled in rich walnut and lined with faded panoramic murals of pastoral scenes, warbled by age, where imagined American landscapes meet half-invented history. In the soft light, they look like something out of a forgotten dream. You glance at them only once, wondering if anyone remembers what was real and what was just painted to look that way.

A jazz quartet plays something upbeat in a way that doesn’t quite match the mood – everyone here’s smiling too sharply and laughing half a beat too late. Champagne flutes thread between conversations like passing currency. Every table has a policy packet, a folded itinerary, and a centrepiece that tries too hard to be bipartisan. You suspect there’s an intern somewhere who cried while arranging the seating chart.

You don’t speak to anyone at first. You don’t have to.

Soon enough, people are coming up to strike conversation and you allow yourself to be folded into the crowd the way you’ve done it a hundred times before – measured, gracious, smiling just enough to disarm but never enough to encourage. Devon and Mills trail a few paces behind, eyes wide and whispering faster than they’re walking.

You charm a senator. Nod at a think tank executive who once tried to poach Derek. Shake hands with someone whose face you can’t place but whose vote you remember. You know how to work a room like it owes you something.

And then Mills tugs lightly at your elbow. "Don't look now," she murmurs, already looking.

Devon doesn't even bother pretending. Their eyes have gone wide, eyebrows somewhere near their hairline.

You sigh and follow their line of sight automatically.

And there he is.

Not a sound, not a shift in the music.

A change in pressure in the atmosphere not unlike static building up across a storm-warmed sky.

Bucky’s been put in a slate suit with an open collar – no tie, no pin. His hair’s been trimmed short and combed back, but it's still unruly at the ends. He’s too polished to be dismissed, too rough around the edges to disappear. He’s grey fabric over something barely tempered, a loaded weapon with the potential to go off at any moment. He looks uncomfortable at first – shoulders too square, expression too measured. Then Jenna spots Devon across the floor, and something in Bucky shifts. His gaze follows hers, and lands on you.

Your eyes meet his for just a second too long, and you watch as some of that tension melts off his too-broad shoulders.

You still haven't spoken since the vote.

Not really.

He never explained. You never asked. But the absence finds you again, familiar, shapeless, dense and dragging.

For that moment, barely a breath long, he looks at you like he might come over and say something. Then someone else pulls him into a handshake, a photo op, a conversation he won’t remember, and the moment dissolves, just like the last one, and the one before.

Derek watches the entire exchange without any comment.

You turn your gaze toward the bar instead.

“Two more hours,” he says under his breath.

You nod. “That’s optimistic.”

He hums, noncommittally. “That’s you being liked. Try being me.”

⁕

You don’t get ten steps to the bar before the first whip staffer descends.

They always come like they’ve spotted a leak in the dam and you’re the only one who brought sandbags – clipboard in one hand, phone in the other, smile stretched tight across too many sleepless nights.

“Congresswoman,” she says, voice pitched low and deferential. “Five minutes for Caucus Unity? We’re trying to get eyes on Jakarta viability. Leadership’s looking at optics.”

You nod, slow. Unity, viability, optics. All code, all familiar.

She ushers you into one of the side salons just off the Concorde Ballroom. The lighting here is cooler, the carpet plush enough to quiet dissent. People are already speaking in half-sentences, clipped and fast, all pretending this is off-the-record even as their aides hover in the doorway with their perfectly blank expressions.

You recognize the faces around the tight circle, the usual suspects: a West Coast rep with a biotech agenda, a Midwestern progressive with too many donors and too few boundaries, someone from Appropriations who always manages to look like they know more than they say.

The conversations wash over you – funding viability, Southeast Asia stability, post-Blip bilateral opportunities.

As fate (bipartisanship, really) would have it, Bucky has been pulled in here too.

He's flanked by Mike, the two of them lingering at the edge of the room like they wandered in by accident. His jacket’s unbuttoned and his expression is unreadable. The corner of his mouth lifts like he’s preparing to say something.

He's waiting for his moment.

You don't give him one.

Instead, you’re now mid-sentence with a regional whip you don’t particularly like but need to flatter tonight. He’s saying something about the Jakarta shortlist. You smile like it doesn’t matter.

Bucky moves again. You catch it in your periphery – a shift, a hesitation, the way he squares his shoulders like he’s working up to it.

You pivot smoothly into another conversation.

This time it’s a subcommittee chair where you speak just loud enough to make interruption awkward. Then a think tank liaison. A third-term Congresswoman from Texas with a lacquered smile and a fundraiser to co-sponsor. Each exchange effortless, each turn just sharp enough to keep him at bay.

Because you know what he’s going to say. It will start with the delegation to Jakarta, and it will end in something that you’ve already said before and that he’s already heard – and you’re done repeating yourself, especially in front of an audience, so you shut the door before the question even forms.

You tell yourself it’s not cruelty. It’s just control.

And he knows it.

Across the room, one of his interns – Jenna – spots Devon and Mills and she waves. They wave back. A tiny reconnection, innocuous on the surface.

You look up, and it buys him his window.

By the time you look away, he's already stepped closer, words primed to go at the tip of his tongue.

“Congresswoman – ” he begins.

“There’s a debrief in five, and I need to flag the draft memo before then,” you say to no one in particular, but it’s enough. Derek appears like clockwork, and your interns rally around you. Someone else calls your name.

You don't look at him.

Because if you do – if you let him get even one word in – you’ll have to hear it.

And hearing it would mean admitting that you’ve been thinking about it too.

So you keep talking. Keep turning.

Let him stand there in the space between what almost was and what you’ve already decided won’t be.

Not tonight.

⁕⁕⁕

He spots you before you spot him.

Or maybe not. Maybe you’ve already clocked him, and you’re just choosing not to look. That wouldn’t surprise him either – nothing in a room escapes you, not when you're in it.

You’re mid-conversation, half-laughing at something the Oregon Rep just said. Easy and poised, like the words you threw at him weeks ago weren’t still rattling around in his chest, like the outcome of the vote didn’t matter, like he hasn’t been turning it over in his head, convinced there’s still something he missed – something that he can fix.

He doesn't make his move right away. He just watches.

You’re in full flight now – graceful, strategic, charming in a way that doesn’t beg, but invites him to have a second glance. It’s not a performance per se, but it’s a curated presence. You know exactly what you’re doing, and you’re doing it to everyone but him.

He waits until Jenna lifts a hand towards Devon, and the interns trade brief, gleeful waves. Instinctively, you look up. Not at him, just because of the movement.

Still, it gives him his opening.

He crosses the floor in big steps. “Congresswoman –” he starts.

You don’t even pause. “There’s a debrief in five, and I need to flag the draft memo before then.”

Your tone is light and unbothered. Not cold, just... uninterested. You’re already turning toward someone else, already back in control of the room.

And that – more than the failed vote, more than the sting of your words – settles into his gut like a wrong note he can’t unhear. He doesn’t name it, doesn’t quite call it jealousy, but it still crawls under his too-stiff collar all the same.

Instead, he watches the way you lean into someone else’s comment, and the way your mouth curves into a smile that doesn’t cost them anything.

It’s not for him. It never was.

There's no reason to stand here, waiting pathetically for even a flicker of your attention. He should walk away. Say something to Mike, or any of the hundred people here who’d trip over themselves to secure a moment of his time. Hell, he could even go to the bar for a glass of something sharp and forgettable.

But he doesn't.

He doesn’t do any of that because the silence between the both of you feels louder than it should. Because he keeps thinking that if he waits long enough, you’ll look back, and this is the part where he’s supposed to try. Because if he doesn’t fix it now, he’s not sure he’ll get another chance.

And tonight, you look so lovely – devastating in your power suit and heels, untouchable in the way only you can ever be. On any other day, he’d be quietly in awe of how you can command a room without raising your voice – he still is – but it cuts deeper tonight, only because you’ve worked the entire event with elegance, and somehow, he’s the one you’ve made a point of not seeing.

And if that’s the distance you’ve chosen – if this is what he’s done – then he doesn’t know how to close it. Only that he wants to, desperately, before it sets in as permanent.

⁕⁕⁕

You’re the first to slip away, using the age-old excuse of needing some fresh air. The ballroom hums behind you – champagne chatter, camera shutters, jazz that’s trying too hard not to matter. You tell yourself it’s the crowd, the heat, the airless tension of it all.

But really, it’s because you can no longer dodge Bucky.

The hallway is dimmer and thankfully deserted. Light spills in low and golden from the sconces, catching on glass panels and framed photographs of nature-scapes. You stop just before a double door, fingers curled loosely around your half-finished drink.

You don’t expect to hear footsteps. But you do.

He doesn’t say your name, but you turn anyway.

He’s already too close – shirt collar slightly open, that weeks-old bruise on his jaw visible where the concealer's worn thin. His crystal blue eyes catch yours, then immediately flickers downward, skimming your expression, your mouth, like he's not sure if he'll ever get this chance again.

You pin your stare on the picture of Eastern Ferns behind him, because if you don't, there is some part of you who will start forgiving him without meaning to.

You keep your voice even. “Don’t tell me you’re lost.”

His smile is a fraction too late. “Thought this wing was policy-only. Must’ve taken a wrong turn.”

"Then maybe start paying attention. That usually helps.”

He exhales a half-laugh. “Right.”

It sits between you, uneven. Like the vote. Like everything else.

“I didn’t expect you to come tonight.” You say in the same tone one might comment on the weather with.

“I figured I owed it.”

“To me?”

“To the optics.”

You huff out laugh, bitter and soft. “Since when were you such a champion of the optics?”

His mouth twitches, like he’s debating whether to flinch or fire back. In the end, he does neither. He just watches you with that kind of cautious resignation that makes something low in your stomach twist.

The silence stretches, and you wonder, not for the first time, if you’re always going to be the one forced to bridge the distance.

“You knew it mattered.” You say at last, like the words have cost you everything to admit.

His piercing blue gaze meets yours then. “You didn’t say it.”

“I shouldn’t have had to.”

The air shifts. Something brittle enters his posture. “I wanted to be there.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that you weren’t.”

“I didn’t make it in time.”

“And the vote failed anyway,” you add, quieter now. “So it really doesn’t matter.”

But it does. God, it does – and the ache of it coils under your ribs like a wound that refuses to heal.

His gaze narrows, and something in his jaw ticks. “I didn’t think –”

“No,” you cut in. “You really didn’t.”

You hold his gaze, something sparking hard beneath it. The anger that you've worked so hard to burry and diffuse now flares up hot and fast. You think of the tally board, the blank space beside his name. The long stillness where you’d waited – stupidly – for something he never promised out loud but said in every passed note and unfinished sentence.

“You didn’t say it,” he repeats again, a little too fast – like it’s the only shield he has left, flimsy and rehearsed. As if saying it first might defuse the fury he knows is simmering just beneath your skin.

“And you didn’t have to miss it,” you snap back, a certain kind of hot rage in your voice that has not been directed at Bucky thus far. “But you did. That was your call. Your silence.”

Something cracks at the edge of his non-reply. Not a plea, because he’s never been the pleading kind, and not regret, because he's done regretting. No, it's as if he is watching a truth land exactly where he thinks he deserves it, just not for the exact reasons that you flung it at him.

“You think I don't care,” he says quietly. It doesn't come out like a question or redirection. Just a bitter fact he can’t correct.

You keep your silence, burning with it. He's right. And right now, you hate more than anything that he's right. You have been nothing but honest with him and still he wants to keep his secrets.

He exhales through his nose, gaze dragging away as if it physically pains him to look at you for even a second longer. For a heartbeat, he seems to debate saying something he’ll regret. You don’t speak, and neither does he.

The silence curdles.

He’s frustrated – jaw tight, breath uneven – not at you, but at the fact that he's standing here trying so badly to fix whatever this is and it's not working the way he thought it would.

“This isn't about obligation,” he finally finds the words he was looking for, voice rough at the edges. “Not anymore. That’s what's making it harder.”

You blink. The words are strange, heavy and hot.

Then he lets it go. “You think I’m just… fucking around,” he adds, something sour cutting through. “That I didn’t show because I couldn’t be bothered. And I can’t – ” He cuts himself off with a shake of his head. The words have gotten too close to something that he's not ready to vivisect in the golden corridor light.

Your lips remained pursed. You’re still watching him, and at the back of your mind, you're still holding onto that image of the vote board, his name blinking blank.

And maybe you are being unfair. But fairness isn’t the point anymore.

“If you have something to say,” you murmur, “you should say it.”

“I can’t,” he says again.

Not won’t.

Can’t.

The admission doesn’t sting because it’s cruel. It stings because it’s accurate, and you have no defence against that. There's no arguing with state secrets. You swallow the scream that threatens to escape.

The anger doesn’t vanish, but it calcifies, hardened by logic and the weight of what he has now confirmed. "You want to hide behind me Barnes? Fine. But I expect a vote, a line item, or a damn good explanation. I don't cover for people who don't pay me back. Even if it's you. Especially if it's you."

That does it.

The full intensity of his gaze swings back to you and he takes a step forward. One tiny movement, but it's enough to spark the air. Suddenly, he's close, too close. Close enough that you inhale his cologne – bergamot, cedarwood, musk. Your instincts are blurred and your wires crossed – slap him, kiss him, beat your retreat before you do either. You suspect he wouldn't stop you, whichever you choose.

His right hand lifts, slow. Like he’s not sure if he’s reaching to steady you or to stop you from walking away again. His fingers graze the inside of your wrist.

You flinch.

It’s small. Automatic. Barely visible.

But he notices. God, he notices.

His hand drops.

You don't move away from him.

You stare at each other. The silence grieves all the possibilities that went unexplored.

"Fine," you say, voice surprisingly clear and level even though blood is roaring in your ears. "You didn't miss the vote because you didn’t care, you missed it because something else matters more. And you can't tell me what because I don't have the security clearance for it, but somehow I have the clearance to be your shield."

He opens his mouth, then closes it.

There's no accusation in your tone, no anger left to burn. All that remains is the rapidly cooling grief of knowing exactly how far you're being kept.

You step back. Not far, but enough to drive your point home.

And then –

A cough. Then a shuffling sound like fabric and heavy gear being adjusted.

You both turn.

A staffer stands three feet away, holding a party banner like she’s about to raise a white flag.

“Sorry,” she says quickly, already raising her phone. “Leadership still really wants the unity shot before the event wraps up.”

Her colleagues linger awkwardly beside her, glancing between the two of you like they had just interrupted a battle between giants, and they are too small to comprehend the carnage, but too human to look away. They've been following your corridor trail for ten minutes, waiting for the photo op. Behind them, a man with a shoulder rig quietly adjusts his lens, pretending not to eavesdrop while very much doing so.

You and Bucky both turn slowly, whatever just transpired between the two of you still hanging in the air, unfinished.

You flash her a winning smile. “Of course.”

Bucky steps into frame beside you. Neither of you say anything. Someone mutters something about ‘committee leads’ and ‘symbolic unity,’ as if that justifies the entire painful exercise.

The staffer lines up the shot. “Smile – or don’t. That’s fine too.”

Neither of you do.

You don’t even face each other. But just before the camera clicks, he turns just slightly, just enough. A sidelong glance so quiet and deliberate and loaded, that it feels like he's been holding it in reserve for hours.

The flash goes off. Once. Twice. The moment is sealed in pixels.

"Goodnight, Congressman." You say softly.

And then you walk away without looking back.

⁕⁕⁕

Everyone is back in your office suite burning the midnight oil, because unfortunately, attending the summit was not an excuse to leave unfinished work behind. You came straight from the Hay-Adams, still in your heels. Your team followed, not because they had to, but because at some point along the way, your standards became theirs.

Devon's the first to receive it.

They’re sitting cross-legged on the floor of the bullpen, half-asleep and pretending to work, when their phone lights up.

But then it buzzes again and again.

Mills, who is actually working on a presentation deck, balancing her laptop on her lap while chowing down on cucumber sandwiches she snuck from the summit, shoots them an unimpressed look.

"Devon," she hisses, leaning over. "If that's your Discord going off I swear on –"

"No, no, it’s not. It's from Tara. She’s working the summit’s social account tonight. Says she caught a good angle of the two of them during the breakout. Wanted me to give the OK before she includes it in the posts."

Mills’ brows rise. "Define 'good'."

Devon thumbs open the message. The image that fills the screen is harmless enough – the two of you standing shoulder to shoulder, facing forward beneath the banner – both composed, professionally distant, the image so polished it almost passes for cordial. Very standard, very boring.

But then the Live Photo loops. It starts with the way Bucky looks at you, devastatingly. Then you step back. His hand lifts – hesitates, suspended in the space you’ve just vacated, like it wants to follow. Not quite touching. Not quite letting go.

And just before the motion resets, you say it – quiet, regretful, laced with everything you didn’t say all night – “Goodnight, Congressman.”

In Bucky’s office down the hallway, Jenna receives the same photo at the same time and immediately does what she always does – screenshot, document, DEFCON-level evaluation. Micah is still elbow-deep in comms reports, but when she shows him the frame and drags the live photo for the full three seconds of movement – Bucky looking at you like he could survive everything except the part where you turn away – he blanches.

In two distinctly separate offices, both Mike and Derek look up from their laptops at the collective shift in energy.

"Problem?" Mike asks, already heading over.

Jenna offers the phone wordlessly.

He watches the loop once. Then again.

Derek leans over Devon's shoulder, expression tight. "This already posted?"

"No," Devon says. "She sent it to me first."

"Good instincts," Derek mutters, dialling instantly.

Mike picks up on the first ring, as if he already had his phone in hand, ready to do the same.

"We embargo the whole set. Everything that was shot between 8 and 10." Derek says, no preamble. It's telling that Mike doesn't need context to know exactly what this is about.

"That’s excessive," Mike replies.

"It’s optics. You want your boss’ entire policy credibility riding on a three-second look like that?"

"Fine. But we’re doing another round of media training. Separate sessions."

"Agreed."

⁕

It’s 20 minutes later, past midnight, and Derek is pacing about your office while you sit half-curled on the couch, the jacket of your suit slung over your chair, hair bunned up, and your heels long forgotten under the desk. You watch him wear a hole in your carpets with the same expression that you wear during long committee markups – something best described as between patient and homicidal.

“It’s just a photo,” you exhale, sharp and shallow like the walls have moved four feet closer and you’re suddenly aware of every inch of space you take up. "Who else has seen this?"

“It’s a live photo,” Derek snaps. “And I got it from Devon, so we can assume that Jenna and the others have it too. The usual staffers, probably. The social media girl didn’t realize her Live function was on, and she also wasn’t the only one filming in that hallway.”

“Huh?”

“There was a guy with a video rig. Probably from the main press pool, but he wasn’t scheduled for that wing.”

Your stomach twists.

Derek pinches the bridge of his nose. “Mike’s already been contacted. He and Barnes are coming down now. We’re going to have to do damage control.”

You sigh, rising slowly. "Of course. Shouldn't be too difficult, it was just a conversation."

"Oh? Is that what we’re calling it?"

The knock at your door saves you from his wrathful tirade.

Mike enters first. Bucky follows behind him, suit jacket gone, gaze lowered as if facing the floor is going to be easier than facing you again after all that has transpired at the summit. They take their seats in the chairs opposite you and make no comments on your state of undress, though you catch Bucky staring at your blouse for a long moment before redirecting his attention to the carpets.

Derek blinks. “Tell me you’re here to apologize.”

Mike's face is grim. "The embargo's been broken. The still made it to two minor outlets. No story yet, but someone jumped the queue."

You sit upright. “What?”

Derek swears under his breath. “Fantastic. Do we know which staffer did it?”

“We locked down everything scheduled for official release,” Mike says, tapping his phone. “But this one – this wasn’t in the original file queue. Someone sent it manually. And someone else was filming from another angle. We potentially have two sources, not one.”

You press your fingers to your temple. “So what? Someone on the press team got overeager? Then let’s kill it and move on. Fire the idiot if we have to.”

Mike doesn’t answer right away. Just flicks a glance toward Bucky.

That’s when you feel it – the silence shifts.

Something’s wrong. Not just optics-wrong. Not just ‘clean it up by morning’ wrong.

You look at Bucky. His arms are crossed now, eyes shadowed in a way that has nothing to do with bad lighting.

“What?” you ask.

He holds your gaze without blinking. “It might not be so innocent.”

Derek scoffs. “You think someone leaked a little hallway moment for... what, blackmail?”

“No,” Bucky says. “To see what we'd do about it.”

The words are too measured, too clean. You know how he gets when he’s deflecting – polished, flat, like if he keeps the language neutral enough, it won’t come back to punish him.

The room is so quiet you can hear the low murmur of the interns working away outside – keyboards clacking, the faint rustle of paper.

You fold your arms. “So you’re saying this is a test?”

“Potentially,” Mike answers. “Or a warning. It wouldn’t be the first time someone floated a leak just to see who blinks.”

Derek bristles. “Are you basing that on anything beyond paranoia?”

Mike hesitates. “We’ve been hearing things – NGO networks, front organizations – sensitive details getting leaked ahead of time.”

A beat. Then two.

You study them both – Mike with that comms-calm steel, Bucky with his hands shoved in his pockets like he’s trying not to clench them into fists.

Your attention fixes on Bucky like you’re giving him one last chance to come clean. When he says nothing, the decision makes itself and your voice sharpens to fill the void.

“And I suppose you’ve both decided that I didn't need to know?” You say, uncharacteristically vicious. “You can’t ask me to play clean when you’re running a different game.”

"This isn't a game." He exhales. “And Mike’s not the one keeping things from you. That’s me. That was my call.”

"Isn't it?" You glare at Bucky, eyes flaring. “Because this makes two times now, Barnes. You say you’re on my side and then go silent when it matters.”

Bucky’s jaw clenches. “You think I want to keep things from you?”

Your voice sharpens. “I believe we've established that what you think, and what you end up doing, are two distinctly separate things."

Derek fidgets beside you, sensing the crack in the room but knowing better than to interrupt.

“You don’t get to use me,” you add, voice low. “Not without paying the cost.”

It’s too much. And still not enough.

Bucky looks away. Not ashamed. Just... resigned.

You hate that you recognise the expression. Hate that it still hits something stupid and sore.

When he finally speaks again, his voice is quieter than before, but it is steady when he says, “there’s something you need to see.”

Finally.

You look up and try not to let the relief of finally getting through to him flicker across your face.

Derek crosses his arms. “Now would be a great time.”

But Bucky’s already pushed himself off the chair. “It’s in the archives. I’ll bring it here.”

You tilt your head. “What is?”

“A report. The redacted version went through to Committee. Mine…didn’t.” He meets your gaze. There’s tension there, and something like apology. “I should’ve shown it to you earlier.”

You don’t speak. But you don’t stop him either.

⁕

Derek exhales through his nose and opens a pre-filled document on his tablet. “While Barnes is getting the report, we can make a crack of getting ahead of it," he says, fingers already flying across the keys.

"We push a dry statement – ‘taken out of context,’ the usual – and bury it in the weekend cycle.” Mike says in sync, leaning over to read the draft as it’s being created.

Derek scoffs. “If that video goes public, there’s no such thing as context. People are already building fan cams of her hair flips from the subcommittee stream last month.”

“That was a good flip,” Mills calls faintly from next door.

You don’t laugh. You lean forward, elbows on your knees, pinning both men with a look. “I want to know if this was an accident or a signal.”

Mike’s jaw tightens. “We’re working on it.”

“No,” you say. “You’re managing fallout. I need someone looking upstream. Who filmed it, who leaked it, who benefits if it goes wide.”

Derek glances toward you, then back at Mike. “We’re going to need a dual plan then. Public-facing control, internal containment. Separate media retraining sessions –”

“Optics insulation,” Mike agrees. “We keep the narrative fragmented. They’re two isolated members, definitely not a pairing. I’ll handle Bucky’s.”

“I’ll take mine,” you cut in, before Derek can speak. “If it comes from you, he’ll think it’s a punishment.”

Mike studies you for a beat. “You think it’s starting?”

You look at him. “Starting?”

“The probe. The leak. The timing. If they’re testing surveillance using us to do it, it’s smart. Small-scale. Deniable. Easy to write off as gossip.”

You fold your arms and something in your jaw sets. “I don’t think this is about us being reckless. I think it’s about someone else taking advantage.”

Derek folds his arms. “And are we even sure this is about Barnes?”

You glance over, sharp. He doesn’t blink.

“You’ve stepped on plenty of toes,” he continues. “Burned a few bridges. Not everyone’s thrilled you’re still standing.”

You don’t answer. Not yet.

“It also wouldn’t be the first time someone took a swing at you just to see you jump,” he adds. “They just might’ve picked the wrong week.”

Mike’s voice cuts in, low but sure. “Or maybe they picked the right target – because they thought she’d be easier to knock down.”

You try not to take it to heart – everyone else pales in comparison next to a super soldier – and your eyes drift toward the seat where Bucky had been, where the silence now gathers like a warning.

Derek exhales. “Exactly. And if they get you both? Even better.”

Mike looks up, gaze steady. “We don’t let them.”

And then, as if the universe can’t resist the dramatic urge, the overhead fluorescents flicker.

Once.

And then again.

It's like the Hill itself is bracing for impact.

Derek turns toward the hallway. “That’s –”

Then the alert sounds. Not the building-wide tone, not yet. Just the urgent pinging of secure channel notifications hitting everyone’s phone at once.

Capitol protocol. Level 3 lockdown.

Derek bolts for the window, pulling the blinds shut, and Mike’s already swiping to open his encrypted thread. “Unauthorized tunnel corridor access. Member-only wing.”

You rise to your feet to put on your shoes. “Which wing?”

“Doesn’t say,” Mike answers. “Could be protest spillover. They had a permit two blocks over, but this seems...”

"Coincidental," you finish for him. "The universe is rarely so lazy."

Derek’s phone buzzes again. “Automatic lockdown in two. They’re blaming protestors.”

The overhead alert tone wails.

“Security protocol activated. All personnel to shelter in place. Building is in lockdown. This is not a drill.”

Mike swears under his breath. Derek moves fast, crossing to double-check the door lock while Mike drags a chair towards the one that connects to the hallway entrance, wedging it beneath the handle with practiced ease.

From the bullpen, a flicker of movement. You catch a glimpse through the glass – Devon’s pacing with their phone half-raised, expression pinched in a way that means they’re trying not to panic. Mills is curled on the edge of a chair, eyes on the news ticker, lips moving silently like she’s rehearsing a press statement just in case.

She looks up and sees you.

You nod once, and she nods back – small, solemn. The doors are locked and the room is barricaded. They know the drill. God help whoever tries to come through them.

And you – your gaze stays locked on the empty doorway, willing Bucky to reappear. He’s somewhere out there. And now, you can’t get to him.

Not without clearance, and definitely not without consequence.

⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕

A/N: lots of out-takes! check off the record when you're ready for it

<< 2. Cover Stories || AO3 || 4. Lockdown >>

[under-lore]

The absolute state of Undercards

This isn't the kind of post i usually make, but well, theorists can make call out posts too. And regarding this topic, it seems that no one else is going to do it if i don't so...

I need to talk about Undercards. And particularly what's been going on behind the scenes in this fangame & its community and that it seems no one wants to speak up about. I've been thinking of doing this for a while and at this point i think i should just go ahead and explain it.

Okay, before we get into the controversy, i'll present the game a little bit for those who haven't heard of it. (And for those who don't care about this part, just scroll down a little bit until the next bold text.)

Undercards is an online multiplayer Undertale/Deltarune fangame which is basically just Yu-gi-oh or Hearthstone, except that cards, spells and such are all Undertale & Deltarune themed. It was popularised a few years ago mostly by youtuber Merg.

The gameplay looks something like this :

This game has a bit of a Gacha side, but it is entirely possible for any new FTP player to climb the ranks quite quickly or to obtain anything a P2W player could obtain somewhat easily, making it not unfair in that regard.

The game has an entertaining mastery curve and progress in ranked leagues (the main part of the game) is primarly decided by improvements in one's strategy regarding synergy of your deck, artifacts & soul, which are all to be chosen by the player to get the best chance at victory.

So, this all sounds like a pretty neat fangame, doesn't it ? So what's wrong ? What is the point of this post about ?

The issues

Whilst the game itself can indeed be quite fun, there exists a very serious problem regarding its community, and particularly its moderation team which sabotages its own game.

I'll start with some of the more minor issues before moving on to more important ones. I will also mention that i will not cover personal experiences (as much as i want to) and rather focus on larger trends to avoid biases or fallacious generalisations of individual cases.

The balance bias

The game has a very severe balance issue, which is nearly entirely caused by the moderators serving their own interests over that of the game.

Because here is the thing :

Many of the moderators (and by that i mean, the ones who's opinions seriously count for the balancing, really) are also the game's top players.

This game not only has greater rewards for achieving higher ranks every month, but even beyond the highest rank, it also has a live public leaderboard of the top players of each month.

However, if you check the monthly rankings of the game in any given season, the top spots are practically entirely monopolised by the moderators and by the alternative accounts of the moderators. (Some have had up to 5 accounts at once)

In other words, those who decide which cards should be buffed or nerfed are also the same people who will benefit or suffer from rebalancing their own cards, or know what tiny change to make to a card to suddenly make it very valuable in their specific decks.

This leads to some pretty silly situations, such as moderators buffing cards that genuinely deserved to be nerfed to secure their own interests. Or, on the other side of the issue, there are regularly cases where 9 out of the top 10 players all use the same clearly overpowered card in all of their decks, but the moderators will continue to deny that the card needs to be nerfed, because they do not want to have to nerf their own decks.

These things are all still happening, and they have been for years.

Because, well, they are the moderators, they have the authority and some of them have been here for up to 7 years, who is going to monitor them ?

After all, moderators are the law, they can do no wrong, right ?

Moderator incompetence and toxicity.

See, the team isn't just biased, they are also frankly incompetent at handling their own game in a facepalm-inducing manner.

For instance, remember how the main entertaining thing about this game was the strategy aspect of how to select your cards, artifacts and soul in order to get the best possible deck you can create and use it to make progress ?

Well, the game also has a spectating function. Which isn't a bad idea at all in itself. But it does have some major issues, like deck copying.

It is extremely easy for anyone to spectate the games of a very high rated player, and simply note down all the cards they play until you have their whole deck figured out. After this, you can easily copy it, and just play with this stronger person's deck and rank up that way, skipping what is quite literally the main interest of Undercards.

Not only does this ruin a large portion of the point of the game for the person that does it, but the more people do it, the more everyone everywhere starts running around using copies of the same few decks and making the game incredibly blend for everyone else overall as the thousands of possible way to make interesting decks slowly get reduced to no more than a dozen considered "viable" possible decks as you climb up the ranks.

...So what did the Undercards team do about this ?

...They created a hub menu where you can publish and downloads decks.

Yes, this is completely counter-productive.

Yes, this means that anyone can publish any deck for any player to find and use, they don't even need to copy the deck, it does that for them automatically.

Yes, this means that someone else can spectate your games, note down your deck, and publish it online for everyone to see, copy, or specifically prepare counters for. And they do.

Not only has the team not fixed those issues, but they have added features to make things more convenient for the perpetrators. They are actively encouraging people to be copycats and anti-fairplay, severely damaging their game's main strength on the way.

Oh, talking about stalking people and anti-fairplay...

The spectate feature has another massive problem : Sniping.

See, a game in Undercards lasts around 5 minutes & involves just two players, and there is rarely more than a couple dozen games going on at the same time. The game also has a very large matchmaking pool, meaning that you can pretty easily be paired against somebody considerably higher rated than yourself.

What this all means is that, by spectating somebody and then entering the playing queue right after this person's game ends, it is very easy to purposely stalk somebody in order to have a match against this particular person.

So, not only can someone stalk you and post your decks and/or strategies online, but anyone even much lower rated than you can look at it, build a counter deck that exists specifically to crush your particular deck, and then stalk you to repeatedly beat you and leech off your rank points.

And there is absolutely nothing that you can do about this.

The only solution is to log off and come back online when the sniper won't be present, or stalk the person back yourself to make sure you only launch games when you know they are already playing and can't be waiting for you, which is quite tiring.

Okay, well what did the team so about that one, then ? Surely even they wouldn't like the idea of being sniped, right ?

Heh... Well, its a bit trickier.

Officially, the practice is not allowed and a couple of them are actually against it. But in practice, most of them actually do not care, for the simple reason that part of them are guilty of doing such things themselves, and simply only take action when someones tries to do it back against them.

In fact, while i actually do not actually have proof for that one, i do also suspect that at least part of the moderators who have several accounts decide on which account they're going to play at a given time by checking which other players are online right now, and picking a deck/account accordingly for easier wins.

Their crappy behavior does not stop at only in-game things, though.

For instance, one person brought up to me that members of the staff have called his religion "garbage". Which needless to say, is extremely inappropriate and disrespectful.

Beyond being scummy, the team also just doesn't know how to handle their player base in general. For example, not so long ago, they shot themselves in the foot by creating two new ranks despite the fact that their player base was already too low to fill up the many ranks they already had. This means stretching up the rank differences between the players, which makes rank gain/loss disproportionate compared to one's actual current level and renders progression even more frustrating for medium level players, as well as generalising higher differences between players for matchmaking, which thus makes all the previously mentioned problems like sniping even worse. (All of that just to make things feel a bit more comfortable for those at the very top like the mods, who won't have to match with lower rated players as much.)

There could still be a couple more things for me to say, but i think the picture is already fairly clear. The team is purposely throwing the quality of their own game under the bus for little more reason than to stroke their ego by seeing their own names at the top of their leaderboards and overall just don't make very good decisions for their game even outside of all that.

Okay, but that was a whole lot of speaking, now how about i give an actual direct example of what the situation is currently like ?

Consider the existence of a user named "Sktima".

Skitma plays the game every day, but practically only ever uses the public chat to either :

Trash talk his opponents either during a game or after a loss.

Complain about the game's RNG, calling it "rigged" or "scripted".

Condescendingly mock and talk down on players rated below 2200 ELO (that is, over 98% of players) for being bad at the game.

If ever called out on this behavior, Sktima will infantilise the whistleblower, calling them a "whining little kid" or similar term before painting them as the bad guy instead, and attempting to bully them into leaving the chat. (and holding grudges against them later on, too.)

All the while, of course, being arrogantly mocking and acting like he considers himself as superior to others.

The question is : How long do you think it took for this player to be banned ?

I encourage you to think about this for a second, before continuing to read.

...

...Okay, have you made your guess yet ?

Well, it was a trick question..

Sktima was never banned at all, for the very simple reason that Sktima is a part of the moderation team.

He even has a YT, too. And it kinda speaks for itself, honestly.

For those interested, here are a couple extracts from a conversation he had in the comments with somebody pointing out that with the size of that community, issues like sniping or hand peeking (another big problem i didn't bring up caused by another bad feature that allows you to directly see the opponent's hand with another tab via the in-game friend option) were bound to happen with the way the mod team handled some features.

Be warned, a good amount of rudeness as well as lying & manipulating to try and turn the situation backwards...

Im not going to analyse or detail more any of that nor point out some of the blatant irony in this conversation, but what i will bring up is that throughout all this, they've made their stance rather clear :

None of this is the fault of the moderator team, they consider that only the player base itself is to blame for the current state of the game, not them.

The underground status.

The thing is, a lot of players aren't oblivious to this, but won't speak a word when staff is present.

In just a couple weeks for instance, at least three separate users have admitted in the chats they thought Sktima was insufferable, including one which claimed he was "the most toxic person on the site." But all this was only at low activity times when the team members were offline.

This was even more obvious on discord, where the only results you could find when searching for "Undercards" in the history of other Undertale/Deltarune related discord servers were people complaining about how toxic the Undercards staff was.

People frequently complain about a lot of the previously mentioned gameplay issues like sniping, but it seems nobody dares to speak up about the actual responsibles, likely due to their position of power and because they consider it as a fait accompli.

Undercards is a great game with has the potential to be very fun, but it and its community are practically being held hostage by the game's staff, and yet it seems the community has just given up on itself and mostly accepted this unfair status quo. This kind of thing shouldn't be allowed to continue.

[resurgentclass-stardestroyer]

“The heavy cruiser had rebalanced its shield envelope to protect it against the turbolasers of the First Order vessels harrying its stern. That was a sound strategy, but it left the cruiser vulnerable to the prowling TIEs — and Kylo had just ensured it wouldn’t be launching starfighters anytime soon.” [TLJ novel]

And then less than a minute later the FO decides they can't send out any more TIEs whatsoever despite Supremacy and two dozen+ Destroyers tagging along because they're "out of range." When Ren just destroyed the entire Resistance fighter fleet.

[hero-israel]

The antizionist crowd loves to shift goalposts, so if they're pressed hard enough on where Jews are supposed to go or Jewish ties to the land, they'll just move to the next talking point.

If Jews are allowed to exist in Palestine, for them, they must have "checks and balances" placed against them. I 100% predict discourse talking about how Jews who remain enfranchised cannot be allowed to vote back in the old "Apartheid" system.

Because it will be very difficult to get the numbers of Palestinian refugees around the world to outnumber Jews, and very difficult to get all the Palestinians to vote for the same things, especially against a Jewish voting bloc that's still half or almost half of the country and only cares about preserving their rights. Preserving Jewish rights would be seen as Apartheid by leftists so that's what we're dealing with.

Logically, you either have to expel a certain number of Jews, socially engineer a mass immigration program for Palestinians, when hundreds of thousands of them live in the Americas quite comfortably and probably wouldn't care enough to go, wait decades for the hope that existing Arabs outbreed Jews, or disenfranchise Jews. It's obvious what their first choice is, but their second choice is clear as well.

Say everything goes their way, and peacefully. Say the new Palestinian government, purged of most Jewish influence, starts slowly but surely chipping away at Jewish sovereignty and dignity, which it will eventually. Leftist will cheer all the way and gaslight Jews pointing out the warning signs that dhimmitude is returning, and any organized effort on the part of Palestinian Jews to vote and protest will be seen as anti Arab racism.

Say Jews still have political power in Palestine, it will still be seen as Apartheid because "too many Jews" remain in important government, military, financial, and cultural institutional positions, "too many Jews" vote, and too frequently. They have all the money and power and privileges, don't you know, and they have a vested interest in saying everyone has equal rights but continue to covertly oppress the Palestinians. They will call this Palestine washing or one state washing. Mark my words.

If by some miracle an antizionist can be forced to admit that Jews should not, for moral and practical reasons, be cleansed from the land, I still wholeheartedly believe there's no real solution where they'll be satisfied, because if Jews must remain on the land, then they must be given rights too, and that's what pisses off the antizionists. They want Jews dead or subjugated or just gone so no one has to think about them.

The amount of social engineering their goals call for is neither real-world realistic nor morally tolerable. Also intolerable is the very clearly implied threat of mass violence to back up that attempted "rebalancing". Their approach would quickly devolve into a 1948-style street-by-street civil war with strong racial / religious elements. In one of his final honest comments before he went full Grayzone, Peter Beinart said that a 1SS would probably turn Israel into Lebanon.

On occasion I have attempted to engage anti-Zionists about what the political reality for post-Israeli Jews would be. They were never willing to acknowledge the risks involved or to set out risk-minimization strategies. It's all vindictive, punitive, use-the-Delorean-to-write-a-new-timeline fantasy.

A politics of revenge will not build a free, fair society. You can bet that in the alternate timeline of their 1SS, 30 years later they would still be calling the Jews "former apartheid supporters" or "apartheid beneficiaries", and urging punishments accordingly.

[mariacallous]

The recent conflicts in the Middle East have ignited open debate among Iran’s political elite over whether the country should weaponize its vast nuclear program. The rationale for doing so, from Iranian leadership’s perspective, appears more convincing than ever.

Above all, Iran needs to reestablish deterrence equilibrium with its longtime foes Israel and the United States. Traditionally, to deter its adversaries from attacking or implementing regime change, Tehran relied on a three-pronged approach focused on missiles, militias, and a nuclear program.

To offset its weak air force, Iran invested heavily in its missiles program, making its arsenal one of the most advanced in the region. Iran also anchors its asymmetric warfare strategy through the so-called “forward defense” policy of using militarized nonstate actors to encircle Israel and the U.S. regional military presence and to mobilize these forces to attack if required. Iran has cultivated its relations with groups that are hostile to the United States and Israel, building the so-called Axis of Resistance, providing them with arms—including sophisticated missiles and drones—as well as training and financial support.

However, Iran’s missiles capabilities and the Axis of Resistance have taken a hit in recent months. The Israeli onslaught against Iran’s most trusted partner, Hezbollah in Lebanon, has delivered a blow to its arsenal, fighters, and command and control structure. Iran was left humiliated by Israel’s ability to assassinate Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh while he was in Tehran this summer. Following the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar this month, Israel seems determined to keep upping the ante to establish a new regional order.

Although Hamas and Hezbollah will continue to undermine Israeli security, the ability of these groups to mobilize in defense of Iran seems severely diminished while they fight for their own survival. Meanwhile, the United States has doubled down on its efforts to shield Israel, moving new anti-missile systems into the country, together with American troops to operate them, in a bid to defang future attacks from Iran and its allies.

Perhaps Iran’s biggest Achilles’s heel is its self-restraint. Over the past year, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has repeatedly held back from a direct war with Israel and the United States. He has also shied away from triggering a full assault by the Axis of Resistance front. Israel has interpreted this restraint as a weakness and exploited it.

This shift in regional deterrence has strengthened the argument in Tehran favoring a nuclear umbrella. Iran has already obtained nuclear threshold status, placing it at the tipping point of weaponization. Iran can develop enough material for a nuclear bomb in just over a week, with some experts assessing that it could build a nuclear warhead to carry these bombs within several months. In the same way that India and Pakistan achieved a relative cold peace, Tehran may look to check Israeli behavior through rebalancing the nuclear playing field.

Another argument for why Iran could dash for the bomb is that the country has already paid the high cost of becoming a nuclear weapons state without receiving the perceived benefits of having the bomb.

Ever since the Trump administration withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal, which Iran was in full compliance with at the time, the United States has imposed its largest-scale sanctions to date against Iran. Western relations with Tehran further plummeted over Iran’s abysmal human rights record, its regional posture, and military assistance to Russia during its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Given the anti-Iran sentiment across Western capitals, the Iranian leadership would be correct to conclude that major U.S. sanctions relief of the type seen in 2015 is not on the horizon. If Iran is already being treated as a nuclear pariah state by the West, then why not secure the perceived security benefits of going nuclear?

Finally, the broader geopolitical conditions today mean the costs associated with Iran becoming a nuclear state are lower than a decade ago. Tensions between world powers now make it increasingly unlikely that Russia, and possibly China, will stand in Iran’s way. Tehran can also capitalize on the Ukraine war by pushing to trade its military equipment—which Moscow desperately needs—for Russian nuclear know-how, technology, and defense at the U.N. Security Council. The United States already fears this could be happening.

Against this backdrop, those inside Iran favoring nuclear weaponization likely see two choices ahead: either Iran’s nuclear facilities are eventually destroyed by Israel and the United States first, and then Tehran stumbles toward nuclear weapons over a longer timeframe with depleted resources, or Iran starts the weaponization now while it has advanced nuclear capabilities and Israel is bogged down in Gaza and Lebanon. Iranian strategists may be swayed for the latter option when faced with a weakened Axis of Resistance, a formidable Israeli-U.S. military force and an Israel poised to strike at Iranian nuclear sites. Despite the strong likelihood that the country will be bombed throughout this process by Israel and the United States, Iran’s leadership may conclude it can bear the brunt of military action and come out of it stronger.

Following the hits Iran has taken to its deterrence capabilities, there is an acute risk of Iran reaching for the bomb. Western governments should act now to shape the internal debate inside Iran to avoid this outcome. A nuclear Iran can act with greater impunity at home and abroad. It will almost certainly trigger a nuclear arms race across the Middle East. This outcome would make a region close to Europe even more dangerous, not just because of the increased risk of violent conflict among states but also the risk of terrorist groups gaining access to nuclear weapons.

Western governments need to warn Iran’s leaders that if they decide to weaponize the country’s nuclear program, it will backfire. Becoming a nuclear state will likely offer Iran’s leaders greater guarantees against large-scale military intervention and externally imposed regime change. But it will expose Iran to vicious cycles of military strikes, cyberattacks, and assassinations. Future Iranian nuclear weapons will not deter Israel against striking Iran—just as Tehran was not deterred against taking the unprecedented step this year of barraging Israel, itself a nuclear power, with missiles.

Over the past year, Europe and the United States have not seriously pursued a political off-ramp with Tehran. The United States has been trapped—by both Israeli and Iranian conduct—into an escalation cycle and seems willing to only play a military card. Absent a political agenda, Iran’s dash to the bomb is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. History reveals that the more the United States and Israel carry out attacks inside Iran, the more Iran inches closer to the bomb.

The instances when Washington and Europe have shifted Iranian calculations away from weaponization involved serious diplomacy. The new Iranian government comprises technocrats who have a long history of supporting negotiations with Europe and the United States and have implemented the deals struck. Iran’s new reform-minded president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has amplified his government’s openness to diplomacy with the West—and this intent must now be put to the test.

In this diplomatic endeavor, a coalition of willing Western governments should ally themselves with Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Iraq, which among them have notable influence with Iran, Israel, and the United States. A new track of pursuing diplomacy with Iran within a coalition of regional actors is the best door opener for the West to prevent the Iran-Israel war spiraling out of control and to wedge open wider space to reduce tensions on other issues.

While there is considerable distrust between Iran and the West at this moment, both sides need to engage in transactional hard-nosed diplomacy to make a course correction. Otherwise, the current path will lead to the worst of all worlds.

[curiousquill1]

Exploring Core Functions of Modern Portfolio Management Companies

Modern portfolio management firms are in the intersection between quantitative analysis and strategic asset allocation, fundamentally shifting the way both institutional and high-net-worth investors approach wealth preservation and growth. These companies go much beyond simple asset management, through sophisticated risk models, factor investments, and rebalancing that dynamically optimize for performance across various market cycles.

Strategic Asset Allocation and Optimization

Strategic asset allocation, in turn, forms the bedrock of professional portfolio management. World-class portfolio management firms utilize leading-edge optimization techniques such as Black-Litterman modeling and Monte Carlo simulations to create portfolios with maximal expected return, operating strictly within narrowly defined risk parameters. It provides the quantitative basis from which the managers move away from diversification through simplistic, low-risk returns towards complex correlation analysis and hedging tail risk strategies.

Evolution of Factor-Based Investing

The operations of wealth management firms have evolved to focus more on factor-based investing approaches. Investment Portfolio management now break down opportunities through multiple lenses, such as value, momentum, quality, and size factors, to construct portfolios that capture specific risk premia while maintaining desired exposure levels. More accurate risk management and performance attribution are made possible by this granular approach to portfolio development.

Alternative Investments and Risk Management

The way that investment portfolio management handles alternative investments has advanced. Portfolio management companies can now easily incorporate real assets, absolute return, and private equity strategies into client portfolios in addition to the conventional stock and fixed-income proportions. This expansion into alternatives requires deep expertise in illiquidity premium evaluation, vintage year diversification, and complex fee structure analysis.

This includes all the various dimensions of the risk management framework in sophisticated portfolio management firms. Stress testing scenarios, value-at-risk analysis, and dynamic correlation models allow managers to gain insight into how portfolios will react under different conditions. Currency exposure management, for instance, involves consideration of counterparty risk evaluation, as well as systematic rebalancing protocols.

Execution Strategies and Performance Attribution

In executing their investment strategies, leading wealth management firm practitioners leverage advanced execution algorithms and dark pool access to minimize market impact and transaction costs. TCA and optimal execution strategies have become crucial for preserving alpha, especially in large portfolio adjustments.

Portfolio management firms have also transformed performance attribution and reporting. Modern analytics platforms allow for granular decomposition of returns across factors, sectors, and strategies, providing unprecedented transparency into portfolio behavior. Detailed attribution analysis can help managers identify sources of alpha, optimize factor exposures, and refine investment strategies with precision.

Technological Infrastructure and Key Considerations

The technological infrastructure that supports portfolio management has evolved to include artificial intelligence and machine learning applications. These tools enhance traditional quantitative models by identifying subtle market patterns, optimizing trade execution, and improving risk forecasting accuracy.

Several crucial elements to consider are as follows:

The investment philosophy of the firm and its alignment with academic research

Risk management infrastructure and stress testing capabilities

Experience in managing complex, multi-asset class portfolios

Track record across different market environments

Transparency in performance attribution and fee structures

Regulatory Environment and Future Outlook

The regulatory environment continues to shape how portfolio management firms operate, with an increased emphasis on fiduciary responsibility and risk oversight. Leading firms maintain robust compliance frameworks while adapting to evolving regulatory requirements around derivatives exposure, leverage limits, and risk reporting.

As markets continue to grow increasingly complex and interdependent, portfolio management firms will play an even more critical role. Their capacity to combine both quantitative rigor with strategic insight and robust risk management frameworks provides the institutional and individual investor with sophisticated solutions for navigating the global markets. A partnership with a portfolio management firm, which demonstrates both technical expertise and strategic vision, can be a step toward achieving investors' long-term financial objectives while optimizing their outcomes.

[justashadetalkative]

9.) if your story got a video game adaptation/spin off, what would it be like? if your project is already a video game, do this for a novelization.

Ohh, what kind of game? Hm.

Jeeze. This is tough. I want to do all the things, but trying to do that would make for hopelessly unfocused gameplay. 😂

A game set in the Spire could be anything from action adventure to real time strategy to RPG (speaking of D&D campaigns, hah) to friend/dating sim to visual novel to social or community sim (along the lines of the Sims, Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing)… depends on what dynamics you want to focus on. Heck, I could see something like the Fire Emblem games — Radiant Dawn is the one with which I’m most familiar — being a really good fit.

I think if there were going to be only one video game adaptation, though… I’d be on the fence between two options.

One would be a visual novel type game, or maybe something a bit along the lines of Night in the Woods — heavily dialogue and interaction focused, where who you befriend and the choices you make or the advice you give kind of shapes the broader community and certain plot events. It’d probably focus on some specific plot arc within the Spire, and be relatively short, or else it’d be kind of an anthology style — maybe there’d be a roster of player characters whose short stories you could play?

For the other….

Okay. So. Look. Fallout 4 has a community mechanic where you can refurbish settlements, build structures, assign people to various roles, etc. And… I have never once completed a playthrough of Fallout 4, because I always get completely and utterly side-tracked into settlement-building. ^_^;

So I think something like that would also be really neat! It’d be rebalanced — the settlement of the Spire would be the main focus of the game, the construction and community management mechanics would be pretty powerful, and most of the main characters would be people living in the Spire, with dialogue, specific needs, role preferences, relationship mechanics, etc. 

There’d still be an action and resource-collecting element, but instead of being the main plot itself, it would be how you gained the resources you need for the main plot. Quests to appease various characters, or to establish trade relations with an off-Spire community, or to defend some Spire resident’s homeworld, or to collect research to build new things, or to beg borrow or steal resources necessary for a specific critical project, etc. 

And it would maintain the core problem of the Spire: people can never completely cut ties. Any individual or group that isn’t willing to keep working with you becomes a major complication… and possibly a threat.

[novelpatterns]

Why Portfolio Managers Need Tech Platforms to Stay Competitive

Embracing technology allows portfolio managers to streamline operations and leverage data-driven insights for superior investment outcomes. By adopting advanced platforms, managers can efficiently navigate the intricacies of modern finance, ensuring they not only keep pace with industry changes but also position themselves as leaders in innovation and client satisfaction.

The competitive edge gained through technology adoption is undeniable. Platforms offering real-time data integration and powerful analytical tools enable managers to make informed decisions swiftly, reducing the risk of human error and enhancing the overall portfolio performance. Moreover, the ability to automate routine tasks frees up valuable time, allowing managers to focus on strategic growth and client relationships.

As client expectations continue to rise, the ability to deliver tailored solutions and transparent communications becomes increasingly crucial. Technology-driven platforms facilitate these demands by providing customizable reports and interactive dashboards, ensuring clients are kept informed and engaged. Such capabilities not only build trust but also foster long-term loyalty, which is essential for sustained success in the financial sector.

In summary, the shift towards tech-enhanced portfolio management is not merely a trend but a transformative evolution that is reshaping the industry. By leveraging these advanced tools, portfolio managers can harness the power of innovation to navigate the complexities of the financial world and achieve unparalleled success in meeting both current and future challenges.

Managing Complexity with Precision

Modern investment portfolios often encompass diverse asset classes, derivatives, and sophisticated financial instruments. Traditional spreadsheets are inadequate for handling this complexity, often leading to costly errors.

Advanced asset and investment management platforms provide real-time data integration, detailed analytics, and intuitive visualization tools. These capabilities enable portfolio managers to make precise, informed decisions and minimize risk effectively.

Meeting Growing Regulatory Demands

Regulatory frameworks in the financial sector are becoming more stringent. Ensuring compliance manually can be time-intensive and prone to errors. Tech platforms simplify compliance by automating reporting, maintaining audit trails, and ensuring adherence to regulatory standards.

This automation not only reduces administrative burdens but also mitigates the risk of non-compliance, protecting both financial stability and reputation.

Enhancing Client Engagement and Retention

Client expectations have transformed in the digital age. They now demand personalized service, real-time updates, and comprehensive performance reports. Delivering on these expectations requires advanced tools.

Tech platforms enable portfolio managers to provide dynamic dashboards, customizable reports, and proactive communication. These features foster trust, enhance client satisfaction, and contribute to long-term client retention.

Driving Data-Driven Decision Making

The era of big data has ushered in a wealth of information, from market trends to predictive analytics. However, deriving actionable insights from this data requires advanced tools.

Portfolio management software equipped with AI and machine learning algorithms helps identify trends, forecast risks, and optimize portfolio strategies. This capability is invaluable in building a competitive edge.

Boosting Operational Efficiency

Manual processes are not only slow but also prone to inefficiencies and bottlenecks. In portfolio management, even minor delays can lead to missed opportunities or higher costs.

Automation through technology platforms reduces time spent on routine tasks such as trade execution, rebalancing, and reporting. This allows managers to focus on strategic decisions that enhance portfolio performance and profitability.

Preparing for the Future

As the financial sector embraces digital transformation, portfolio managers must future-proof their operations. Tech platforms offer scalability, adaptability, and innovation to meet emerging challenges and opportunities.

By adopting the right technology today, portfolio managers can ensure they remain at the forefront of tomorrow’s industry.

Genesis: A Revolutionary Tech Platform for Portfolio Managers

While the benefits of tech platforms are evident, not all solutions are created equal. This is where Genesis stands out as a leader.

Genesis is an advanced, cloud-based asset management platform designed to address the unique needs of modern portfolio managers. Its features include:

Real-Time Data Integration: Provides a unified view of portfolios by connecting multiple data sources.

Scalable Infrastructure: Accommodates growth and adapts to changing market conditions.

Regulatory Compliance Automation: Reduces complexity with built-in compliance tools.

User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies operations for both managers and clients.

AI-Powered Insights: Delivers actionable analytics for better decision-making.

Discover how Genesis can transform your portfolio management strategy. Learn more about its unique capabilities on our Asset Management page or explore its applications in Wealth Management.

Conclusion

The need for technology in portfolio management has never been greater. From managing complexity and ensuring compliance to enhancing client engagement and driving efficiency, tech platforms are indispensable.

With its innovative features and unparalleled flexibility, Genesis provides portfolio managers with the tools needed to thrive in an increasingly competitive market. Future-proof your operations today with Genesis and redefine what’s possible in portfolio management.

Call Us: +91 9650900223

Visit Our Website: www.novelpatterns.com

Mail Us: sales@novelpatterns.com

[miyamatsui]

401(K) INVESTMENT PLAN

Today, I will share with the guys my structured approach to building and managing retirement savings through a 401(k) investment plan. By following this plan, you can achieve financial security in retirement and have a portfolio that balances growth potential with risk management.

Objective: The objective of this 401(k) investment plan is to ensure a well-balanced and diversified portfolio that aligns with long-term financial goals, risk tolerance, and retirement needs. This plan is designed to maximize returns while minimizing risks, taking into account the tax advantages of a 401(k) account.

Assessing Risk Tolerance and Time Horizon

Risk Tolerance: Determine the appropriate level of risk based on personal financial goals, age, and comfort with market volatility. Generally, a higher risk tolerance allows for a greater allocation to equities, while a lower risk tolerance favors bonds and fixed-income investments. Time Horizon: The number of years until retirement is a key factor in deciding the investment strategy. A longer time horizon permits a more aggressive investment approach, while a shorter time horizon necessitates a more conservative allocation.

Diversification Strategy

Equity Investments: Allocate a percentage of the 401(k) to stocks, focusing on a mix of domestic and international equities. Consider including large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap funds to ensure broad market exposure. Fixed-Income Investments: Invest in bonds and other fixed-income securities to provide stability and income. Consider a mix of government, corporate, and high-yield bonds to diversify risk. Alternative Investments: Depending on the options available within the 401(k) plan, consider allocating a portion of the portfolio to alternative investments such as real estate or commodities to further diversify and hedge against inflation.

Contribution Strategy

Maximize Contributions: Aim to contribute the maximum allowable amount each year to take full advantage of tax deferral benefits. Additionally, contribute enough to qualify for any employer matching contributions, as this represents an immediate return on investment. Regular Contributions: Set up automatic contributions to ensure consistent investment over time. This dollar-cost averaging approach can reduce the impact of market volatility.

Rebalancing and Monitoring

Periodic Rebalancing: Regularly review the portfolio to ensure it remains aligned with the target asset allocation. Rebalance the portfolio at least annually or whenever significant market movements cause a substantial deviation from the original allocation. Monitoring Performance: Continuously monitor the performance of individual investments and the overall portfolio. Make adjustments as needed based on changes in market conditions, personal financial situation, or retirement goals.

Consideration of Tax Implications

Pre-Tax vs. Roth Contributions: Evaluate the benefits of making pre-tax contributions versus Roth (after-tax) contributions based on current and expected future tax rates. Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs): Plan for RMDs starting at age 73 (or the required age based on current regulations) to minimize tax impact and ensure compliance with IRS rules.

Retirement Income Planning

Withdrawal Strategy: Develop a strategy for withdrawing funds during retirement that minimizes tax liability and ensures the longevity of the retirement portfolio. Annuity Consideration: Consider purchasing an annuity with a portion of the 401(k) balance to provide a guaranteed income stream during retirement