I'm excited to introduce this session, Financing Strategies for Sustainable, Equitable, and Secure Food Systems. Without further ado, I would like to pass the mic to our moderator of the afternoon, Jennifer Astone. Thank you so much. Thanks so much. Welcome to Financing Strategies for Sustainable, Equity, Equitable, and Secure Food Systems. I first want to acknowledge that we are on the land of the Ramatush Ohlone peoples. And there was a question this morning about compensation. If you're interested, there's a Giving Shumi project that's on the Justice Funders website. And I encourage you to check it out. It's part of our responsibility beyond acknowledgement. I'm very sad that Rex Raymond of the Transformative Initiative in Food Systems is unable to be here today due to illness. So I'm stepping in at the last minute with these incredible panelists to talk about issues that are really, really dear to Rex's heart and to the global lines for the future of food as well. As you may know, we're here to really share and build on the work of inspiring leaders who are tailoring businesses and financial models to meet the needs of nature and communities. Some of the stories of these leaders were captured in a report that was issued last year called Mobilizing Money and Movements that TIPS developed with the Global Alliance for the Future of Food. The report highlights six inspiring examples of companies and initiatives that used financing creatively to build wealth in the communities and enhance natural capital. The report identified five shared characteristics for building sustainable food system enterprises. These entrepreneurs lead to serve, engage with movements, center healthy food, invest in skills development, and adapt through innovation. I was the lead author on that report and will be speaking to one of those initiatives today. And one of the companies highlighted is Organically Grown Company, which is an affiliate of alternative ownership advisors. And Natalie Reitman-White is on the panel today. And we're joined here by Lodlita Nunn, Nunn of Potlaker Capital, and Anthony Chang of Manzanita Capital Collective, who will also share stories of getting fair and inclusive capital into food and farming businesses. So let's start by unpacking key dimensions of innovative investment in business structures. If the goal is fair and inclusive returns, what do you consider fair and inclusive returns, Anthony? You work with many BIPOC entrepreneurs and you work with asset owners to facilitate non-extractive investment. What do you consider to be fair and inclusive returns? Thanks for the question, Jen. And thanks for stepping in for Rex in moderating. I think when I think about this question, fair and inclusive financial returns, the question that comes up is for me is for who? Who are we talking about? Are these our financial returns for investors? And I think that's fundamentally flawed in how we're like maybe even framing the question. In general, I think we need to go from centering investors and well-folders in this work to really centering frontline communities of color if we want to be able to advance the equitable just food systems that we're looking for. And so speaking to the people in this room, I think it's like people with wealth need to stop centering your needs and especially around financial return. I think folks that work with well-folders and foundations and other institutions can stop centering the needs of your clients around their needs or financial returns and really be thinking about what are the communities that you all are trying to work with and support in advancing a more just and equitable food system and what are their needs and how can capital show up in that way? In our work at Man City Capital Collective, we're in relationship with and accountable to tribes and indigenous land stewards, farmers of color and other folks working on food and land justice. And so what does it mean for it to be fair and inclusive for them? And I think we need to pull back to a context of massive accumulation and concentration of wealth in this country that traces its origins to the theft of indigenous land enslavement of black people and exploitation of labor. So in one of our projects that we work on with justice funders, one of our movement partners, Black Farmer Fund, asked, why are wealth holders, in this case foundations, earning a financial return off of wealth accumulated via stolen land and labor? How and why is that just? So for us, the North Star is the redistribution and return of land and money to frontline communities of color from which they were stolen. And in the meantime, as we are trying to do that work, that might not be possible with many of your kind of families and institutions or clients at this point, but moving directionally towards that, like non-extractive finance, zero percent loans where folks with the most resources are the ones taking the risk. I think that's what we should be talking about when we're talking about fair and inclusive financial returns. Thank you, Anthony. Natalie Organically Grown Company is highlighted in the report and it is a lighthouse of wealth creation. You were at Organically Grown Company and now at Alternative Ownership Advisors working on organizational, legal and fiscal structures that enable and empower the stakeholders in a business to generate wealth fairly. Can you give an example of ownership and governance structures that are leading to better outcomes? Thanks for the question. Hi everyone. So for us, it's really about reimagining and redesigning capitalism by looking at the structure of the business enterprise itself and the structure of the corporation and really looking at who makes the decisions and where does the money go. So we wanna use the engine of entrepreneurship to generate products and services that further a sustainable food system, but we really need to look at who's making the decisions and holding the steering wheel in those companies and who's benefiting. So we've been working with businesses in the food system to use a new legal form for ownership in the United States called a perpetual purpose trust where the common equity, the controlling shares are actually held by a purpose, not a person. So no one individual can sell off the underlying enterprise, the vehicle for entrepreneurship that's changing the food system through its products and services is not for sale. And then what we've been doing is we've been structuring the participation of all the different stakeholders. So investors are one stakeholder that is bringing something to the table, but so our employees who are putting their labor every day so are the suppliers that are bringing their product and selling it through the enterprise so are the customers and the community advocacy organization that create the landscape in which the business is successful. So we really look at sharing the governance amongst those groups and know one of those groups can take over the steering wheel and move it away from that purpose. And we also structure formally in the financial flows of the company people benefiting from the money that the enterprise makes through a cash flow waterfall. So just a quick example of that we just recently transitioned local Ocean Seafood on the Oregon coast to this model. They're a home delivery program for seafood selling at a restaurant locally in the community and doing markets. They're distributing millions of pounds of seafood but their purpose is around creating a sustainable fishery economy. Nobody in their stakeholder group can take them off that purpose. They have to stay committed to introducing people to local sustainable foods. But the employees and the fishermen share in the governance towards that purpose and share in their awards. Thanks Natalie. I'm gonna now give an example from the report the Cooperativa Ejusei to talk a little bit about what does blended finance mean? We hear this term a lot and one of the things that really struck me in doing the research for the report was that it's much different than I had originally expected. So briefly, Ejusei Cooperativa is rooted in movement organizing of local Mayan communities in the states of the Yucatan, Campeche and Quintana Roo. One of the issues the local communities raised 20 years ago was creating strong local income streams to stem out migration. And what they did is they introduced honey production techniques and organized the communities into cooperatives to seek initially fair trade certification and later organic. And honey production for income fit alongside their subsistence milpa production which is an indigenous highly productive biodiverse production system of intercropped corn, beans and squash. The cooperative however was the lynchpin of all this organizing. It was focused on the values of democracy, inclusivity and respect for the environment. So by using both fair trade and organic certification the cooperatives able to provide their producer members with a higher price. They also built a honey processing plant over 10 years, which further increased their revenue. So what were some of the financing mechanisms? Well one of the pieces is fair trade importers in Europe who are advancing up to 60% of invoices up front which helps farmers with production costs as well as education, healthcare and other household needs. Grants have also been key to building their infrastructure from the global environment facility created their regional honey collection centers and Kellogg Foundation has continued to support ongoing cooperative education and organizing processes that have been central to their success. Social enterprise finance loans from shared interest UK and root capital at below market rates as well as a loan from the National Development Bank in Mexico have been critical to their success. And as this was born from a movement it is continually revitalized by movement as the introduction of GMO crops in the Yucatan has been successfully fought off by a band of Mayan groups that got together to fight the introduction of pesticides and GMO crops which would have undermined their organic certification. So now let me, and this is all indigenous communities that have come together to form this very strong and growing cooperative. Let me now, Lilita turn to you and ask you to bring it together for us. You are combining many elements at Potlicker Capital. What are you doing to pursue fair and inclusive returns? Yeah, thanks, Jen. Hello, everyone. At Potlicker Capital, we are using an integrated capital approach to support BIPOC farmers, black indigenous people of color. And we do this in a multifaceted way by not only bringing what we call reparative capital so it's social capital, technical assistance and also financial capital that is non-extractive. We provide low or no interest rate loans to BIPOC farmers. We also are connecting them with distribution. We are also ensuring that the terms of those loans are flexible, non-extractive. It could be interest only for a period of time before it converts. And in an example of that, we supported a biracial farmer right outside of Chicago who purchased 30 acres of land. This was an ag tourism business. We were also able to partner with another financial provider in order to make this less de-risk the deal for the entities involved. We were able to provide her with not only grant capital to help with her operations, but also provided her with a loan at 2.75%, non-extractive. It is important that we work alongside the BIPOC farming community, understanding what their needs are and being able to come in and provide them with resources and solutions that help them not only thrive, survive, but also scale and grow. This is, again, reparative in nature. And when I say reparative in nature, we wanna acknowledge as has been done the historical implications that black and brown farmers have faced for centuries. We are on stolen land that has been worked by a culture, a population of people that to this day are still disinvested in and are systemically harmed. And so we wanna bring in this reparative capital so that it is uplifting this sector and also bringing in solutions that help them grow. Thank you. I'm just gonna point out to everyone, we don't have a mic, so if you wanna ask a question, if you can tap it into the mobile device, that would be fantastic. And I'm gonna do some follow-up questions now, but I will also look for audience questions. Anthony, I'm gonna turn to you and we're gonna talk about what strategies do you see to achieve fair inclusive returns. Let's look at the investor side. What should they be thinking about? I think we at Manzanita Capital Collective really want to encourage investors to look at who they're surrounded by and really listen to frontline communities of color that are doing the work. And maybe some investors that we know are not in relationship already, so they can perhaps like ask people in their community who are connected, who have those deep and trusted relationships and really ask folks what they need. If we're really going to go after impacts, if we're really gonna build a fair, equitable, just food system, then I think that black and brown farmers, indigenous land stewards and others, they're already doing the work on the land, they might be disinvested in, they might not have all the resources that they want and lead, whether that be capital, land, et cetera. But I'm sure they know what they need and if they're given the opportunity to share and have their voice in terms of what kind of capital, on what terms, whether it be a mix of grants and loans at a 0% interest rate over 10, 15, 20 years, whatever it might be, leading with what do you need and starting from that place and not starting from a place of what do I need as an investor. Okay. Lolita, you also raised money for Potlaker Capital. How do you approach investors about the kind of capital that you need and how it aligns with outcomes? Yeah, it's very important, I want to say to align yourself, if you're with the mission aligned organizations.  And we ourselves need non-extractive loans in the sense that it is low interest rates or recoverable grants or grant dollars in order to redeploy these to support the farming communities. So now I'd like to turn to entrepreneurs. How would you counsel and talk to entrepreneurs about seeking strategies for seeking investment, Natalie? I'll just echo what Anthony was saying in terms of not going out to the marketplace and saying what role investors take and then contorting your behavior to meet what investors need, but instead making the case for what you need and where capital fits into helping you grow what you need and what a reasonable return is on balance with the other stakeholders that you are serving in your ecosystem. And really it's really for investors about being in right relationship in terms of thinking about the fact that they're bringing something to the table, but others are bringing something to the table and ultimately the equity is in the purpose that this business is benefiting and that we can share in the returns for it, but nobody has the right to take over and kind of own as their private property the value that's being created, that value actually exists for and by itself and that needs to continue and your investment is for a period of time that needs to be rewarded alongside others who are also putting their resources and their livelihoods in to make that happen. They also need a return. So really thinking about what is that right relationship and thinking about it more as a circle versus thinking about investors being kind of at the top of the food chain and driving the vehicle. Instead, this is a vehicle that we're all participating in and we need to be in right relationship with each other and work out through open dialogue what is an appropriate return for the different stakeholders. And sometimes that's an odd thing to do because most investors are used to participating where I'm not gonna tell you what I'm getting and you're not gonna tell me what you're getting and we're gonna hide behind and each try to get the most that we can versus actually thinking about it in a relational way and saying, how do you get what's gonna be reasonable for you to be sustained? How do I get that? What does this look like? And ultimately, how do we sustain the purpose? Cause that's what we're here for. So I wanna add one other thing that I learned from the report is that many of these transformative food system leaders and initiatives are not actually, they're not taking commercial capital number one and some of them are self-financed 100% which is really fascinating. A good example from the cooperativa, as you say, is the fact that they built their, refining their honey processing plant in Merida over 10 years and you may ask, well, does it really take 10 years to build a processing facility? No, it doesn't. However, they were unwilling to take on external capital which could undermine their ownership of the cooperative. So their cooperative members said, you know what, we're gonna self-finance this and it looks like it's gonna take us 10 years to build this and we don't wanna take a revenue or income cut while it's being purchased because it's important for our families to have that income so we can continue to pay school fees and take care of health and medical care. They did that, they completed the building over a 10-year period from 2010 to 2019 and they are in firm control of their resources and they're growing and building out their cooperative as we speak. So I'm gonna now turn- Jen, do you mind if I add a couple of examples? Yeah, go right ahead. Sorry to interrupt. I just wanted to add a couple of examples to kind of, I think, illustrate some of what we're talking about. There's two projects that we've worked on at Manzanita Capital Collective that came to mind. One is an $11.5 million purchase on organic farmland property outside of Watsonville, California where we worked in partnership with their capital partners and kitchen table advisors and the People's Land Fund. We purchased a property in order to transfer it to a group of Latino immigrant organic farmers. What they needed in terms of kind of following what I was saying before around listening to farmers and what they needed is that a bunch of these farmers have super successful small organic farm businesses, they're thriving, they have $100,000 in sales. What they don't have is family and friends money. What they don't have is hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions of dollars to be able to put on down payment and they don't have access to the size parcels that they need. So we banded together with them to be able to purchase this $11.5 million property and had $2 million of grants, $6.5 million of mostly 0% interest loan money and $3.5 million of equity that can provide some of the capital, some of the family and friends money to be able to acquire the property and eventually to be able to transfer it over to them. So there's like this mix of, Lily, do you're saying this mix of grant capital, debt capital? No, no interest loan capital, some equity to be able to make the deal work and that's what could for these farmers that do produce commercially, selling at farmers markets wholesale, et cetera, they could afford to service that debt. They didn't have the down payment, they needed the grants and other things to help make that happen, but they could service like $9.5 million of debt and equity. Conversely, we're working in another project with a group of tribal members that are trying to start an indigenous medicine farm that's mostly for cultural medicines that will stay in the community. There'll be a very, very tiny slice of that that will be sold commercially. And so for them, the flip of what we're looking at is 80% grants, 20% no interest loan for them to be able to acquire the land to be able to accomplish what they needed. And it started with asking the question, like what are you trying to do? What do you need? What is the capital that will facilitate that happening and being able to work with them to find the capital partners that will do it? And each of the farmers that we work with, each of the projects that we work with will look different, but starting with asking the question, we can get to some pretty creative answers around what the capital stack or capital break can look like. Yeah, I'll just chime in on that. Let's go right ahead. And you bring up something very important, Anthony, is that when you are working in this space, you have to be a relationship with the folks that you're working with. We are in relationship with the BIPOC farmers. It is not transactional. It is not one-off. We plan to be there for years because just giving someone a loan is not going to help them grow, sustain. It's a journey. And you really have to ask those tough questions and be in relationship with them so that the growth of their work is also reflected on your organization. You're making an impact at the individual level, which is the farmer. You're impacting the community because that farmer is going directly to the community that they live and serve in. And you're helping to shift systems and empower the farmer themselves, which is one of the most critical parts. And so as you go and you're doing this work, you just really need to make sure that you're bringing in that community voice, that farmer, that individual voice, and listening to them and working alongside them to create those solutions, whether that is on the board level, advisories, inviting that voice into making the decisions, help providing those solutions is instrumental and imperatively important. And I was on a call with you recently about a equipment trust that the farmers suggested. You want to just give an example of that. Yeah, it's in the south. So Potlicker Capital is a national fund and we have geographical specific areas that we're focused in. And in the Mississippi Delta area, working with small farmers, they cannot afford to buy large pieces of equipment. And so one of the things that we're doing with others is creating an equipment trust where this will be shared equipment that could be utilized through with these 10 to 20 farmers. And so again, non-extractive and also listening to the voice of the farmer and addressing their needs. And someone locally will kind of be the manager of it, but we're coming in and working alongside to provide the solutions that's needed. Fantastic. Do you want to add anything Natalie to this? Well, most of the folks that we're working with are more at the succession end of the spectrum. So social entrepreneurs who have built their businesses and usually bootstrap their businesses because they haven't wanted to take outside investment because they didn't want to give up control. But they need a succession strategy and they're trying to figure out how to make sure the values of which they've operated their businesses and really acted as a steward of their business in terms of not being extractive themselves and growing the business over time is sustained. So we're often working with recapitalization into a purpose trust structure where the business will stay permanently independent with the purpose locked into its DNA so that no one can change it. And they're usually in a period of needing to get some capital out as well as needing, for the first time, often entertaining the notion that they could actually bring on capital to expand their impact. In a way that wouldn't be extractive and could actually add value and allow them to grow their impact, which many of them have been, they wanted that, but they've been wary of entering into conversations that might cause them to change, get off purpose and change direction. So we're really helping folks and it's a combination like you're saying of often debt and equity financing as well as owner self-financing. Fantastic.  I'm gonna give you five minutes to turn to one or two or three people at your table to talk about the strategies. If you're obviously interested in food and finance and agriculture and to share what you're learning, what strategies you're using and we're gonna popcorn out some of these ideas. I know there's a lot of really brilliant investors and entrepreneurs in this room and I want you to get a chance to get to know each other and then we'll come back for some closing comments and you're also welcome to put questions in but I'm gonna give you five minutes starting now. Don't be shy. I know there's really capital providers and entrepreneurs, go right ahead. Thanks, Phil. Yeah. Others? Oh, come on. I don't believe it. I think a lot of these tribes wanna give you some chance to pick a year for a little bit across in the states that are venture that are doing these corporate initiatives that are looking for these investors. What are the strategies that I believe that investors think there's funding there and not all of us, most of us, 80% of us don't get to see them. So that's a big myth that we have to battle automatically. You guys got casinos, it's not for that. Casinos are for equity and to be able to give the economy a boost for our tribal members to work. So that's a myth that we gotta be right away. But the strategy I have is I just got back to Wisconsin for Bill Nattis and I have a cooperative with the White Point initiative going on right now and out of the 7,000 tribal members, there's six out there, shipping corn and getting it ready. The problem is we're having the investors, they don't know what the investors want. They don't even know what the investors need some training for these people. If we had somebody to go to help us, find out how to ask for investment, not to what we need to put on the ground for us. And the biggest challenge amongst all these tribes is that's not how we did it traditionally. So fighting that, but if we want to continue from a wellness in our communities, we gotta make that initial step. But the buy-in for the community is the biggest thing. So we can show a successful tribal individual abundance. That's the strategy that I know I need to bring to these other tribes. So that's what you like. I appreciate that very much and come and talk to me afterwards. I have some people to connect you with. Anyone else? Yes, please do. Thank you. Yes. One more comment. Can you keep it to a minute? Thank you. Thank you, thank you. I love it. We're highlighting place-based strategies, the importance of grants and technical assistance as a runway for people to start to get into entrepreneurship, the need for big capital that's aligned with movements and communities. Those are all great strategies. I'm gonna turn to the panelists for some final comments as we wrap up. Let's see, yeah. Anthony, I wanna turn to you and I know we can't have these conversations without talking about power dynamics and the need to renegotiate relationships between entrepreneurs and asset owners and allocators. What is your advice about how to navigate these conversations and really to start them and initiate them in a sustainable way so people don't walk away from the table? How do we do that? How do we think about that? Yeah, I appreciate the question, Jen. And I think it connects to all of the comments that came in from the audience around and connected some of the things that we've been talking around, listening, asking the questions and listening to frontline communities of color, asking what they need and remembering that it's not just about shifting capital where it goes but it's also about shifting power. And just listening to some of the folks that spoke here is like they are doing the work on the ground. They know what's needed. It's just, it's under invested in and folks just need the resources. And Bill, I appreciate what you said about starting with a billion dollars. You start with the billion so you can do the next two billions, you can do the next 10 and then 100, right? And I think it was easy perhaps to lose part of the thread that you said, but it's really about foundations, wealth holders, investment advisors letting go of this decision making and really handing it over to democratic governance by tribes, by indigenous folks, by communities of color so that they are the closest to the solution. They know where to channel the funds. Okay, and another final point, Natalie, around. So one of the things I think some people don't envision is that they're actually capital holders that see the return on investment as being multiple, not just financial, but also in terms of social, environmental, et cetera. And I know you attracted quite a bit of capital in order to convert OGC. So talk to me about these investors and who they are and why they were interested in a different return. Yeah, well, we did over 20 million dollars to refinance the ownership of organically grown and put it into a purpose trust. So now it's owned by the purpose and we did it through a combination of debt and equity financing. And with regard to the debt, we did it with RSF Social Finance and it was very much an open process around with the equity investors about where everyone was going to sit and what the company could really afford and we really centered the company first and really made sure that whatever we were signing up for wouldn't take away wealth or returns from our employees and our farmers, et cetera, that it wouldn't cause us to have to behave in a way where we weren't able to provide good wages and good returns. So we had an open discussion there and then in terms of how they get rewarded, I mean, we basically show over time that the pie is this big and we have a dedicated cash flow waterfall so it's not elective. Well, maybe if I feel like it, I can give some money back to the workers and to the farmers and to the community advocacy organizations. It's actually built in as a mandatory part of where the money flows. And as part of that money flow with regard to the farmers and community ally organizations and people who sell the fruits and vegetables, Anthony was actually part of our process of designing the people who would be impacted with those decisions, how they would have access to asking for what they need. And it's not perfect, we're learning as we go but we're trying to figure out how the people who most need the funds can tell us what they need the funds for and be a part of deciding who gets the funds. So that's part of how we're dividing up the pie in terms of the money that is generated from the enterprise. Also, we completely did away with annual shareholder meetings and we have something called an annual stakeholder gathering which invites everyone to the table and we've, from a governance standpoint, whether you invest a million dollars or invest 50,000, which is our minimum investment, everybody has one vote for our trust protector committee as well as workers, farmers, et cetera. So it's a shared governance structure and an opportunity to be in relationship with each other and actually have dialogue on a regular basis. Thank you. We are at the last two minutes and I wanna give Lolita a chance but I just want the other speakers, I'll give you 10 seconds to give your advice or your call to action. We wanna leave investors and entrepreneurs with a call to action but Lolita I wanna give you a final word here on your advice for entrepreneurs and others. Yeah, absolutely. I would just have to add that everything that the panelists have said is spot on and coming into this work at Potlicker working with BIPOC farmers, we're not farmers, we are governed by farmers. So we invite the farmers are part of our board, they're on our advisory committee, they are part of our investment committee and tapping into that voice is important. So as you are out there and you are working in different communities with different cultures, it is important to invite those community voices into help shape and inform the solutions that you are seeking to make an impact in this community, in your country, in the world. So call to action, Anthony. Shifting power, you don't have to do it alone. Common future who's in the room like has a participatory investing thing. Justice funders has a just transition investment community. If you're interested in shifting power, you don't have to do it alone, you can find the community of people that are trying to do it as well. Natalie. Take a deep look at the structures and really redesigning the structures of investment and governance to create different outcomes. Alita, take a look at the people around you. Is it representing your community? And you know, Potlicker, we are two years into this work, this great work and we are actively raising funds from both accredited and non-accredited investors. And if you wanna learn more about the work we're doing, please stop me. And I would just say that it's really important to account for the co-benefits of the circular solidarity economies. It's benefiting folks in so many ways and investors are very attracted to non-financial returns. That's what I'm finding. And the other thing is open your eyes. These enterprises exist around the globe. They're initiatives that are doing incredibly important work without us investors. And we need to find a way to be part of transitioning our food systems for the long-term strategy and well-being and health of our communities and our planet. Thank you so much everyone for being here today.


When the framers of a constitution had to decide how the nation's president should be elected, it led to a great deal of debate. They did not believe a popular vote of the entire nation would be an effective system because at that time information was too hard to disseminate to the entire country. They did not want Congress to directly elect the president because that would put too much power in the hands of the federal government. And they believed elections held in each state assembly would just result in each state nominating a favorite son. All of these concerns eventually led to the electoral college system. The people are not qualified to exercise themselves in the executive department, but they are qualified to name the person who shall exercise it. With us, therefore, they choose this officer every four years. Thomas Jefferson, 1789. The Constitution designates that a group of representatives or electors from each state and the District of Columbia shall assemble every four years to elect the president. The number of electors from each state is equal to the number of senators and representatives from each state, and they are supposed to vote according to the will of their constituents. Originally, the Constitution required each elector to vote for two separate candidates. The candidate with the highest vote would be elected president, and the second highest vote-getter would be vice president. With the 12th Amendment ratified in 1804, this part of the electoral system was changed. The electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for president and vice president, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves. They shall name in their ballots the person voted for as president, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as vice president, which lists they shall sign and certify and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the president of the Senate. 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution All but two states use what is called a winner-take-all system. Whichever candidate wins the popular vote in the state is awarded all its electoral votes. Maine and Nebraska are the only states that split their votes based on candidate statewide performance. The electors meet in their respective state capitals approximately six weeks after the popular vote to officially cast their electoral votes. There are 538 total electoral votes, so a winning candidate must receive at least 270 votes. If no candidate receives 270, the House of Representatives determines the winner, with each state's House delegation casting one vote. This has happened only twice, in the elections of 1800 and 1824. The election of 2000 is one that brought much criticism of the electoral college system. Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote, but Republican George W. Bush won the electoral vote, leaving many Americans feeling the electoral college usurped the will of the people. Another criticism of the electoral college system is that the large states have too much influence, and people of small states often feel ignored since campaigns generally focus on the larger states. It can also affect voter turnout in states that have a dominant political party. If a state has mostly Republican voters, people who want to vote for the Democratic candidate may not vote because they believe their votes will have no effect. Though it has its issues, the electoral college provides some unique benefits as well. Because there are fewer than 500 votes, it is relatively easy to determine a winner, even in close elections. Despite the events surrounding the 2000 elections, recounts and disputed elections are rare. And it maintains a two-party system. If the election was determined by a popular vote, there would likely be several candidates. With this situation, the winner would be unlikely to receive more than half of all votes. Thus the president would hardly be one that could claim his election was a mandate from the people. When political parties choose the candidate they want to represent them in the presidential elections, the process is done through a series of primary elections and caucuses. Primaries are the most common method of selecting presidential candidates. In each state that holds a primary, voters directly cast their ballot for a candidate. There are three types of primaries, open, closed, and blanket. In open primaries, voters can cast ballots for a candidate from any political party. In closed primaries, voters may only vote for candidates representing the political party with which the voter is registered. In blanket primaries, candidates from both parties are listed together on a single ballot. Though primaries are more common, some states use caucuses, where selected members of a political party represent the voter's will. Though only 12 states now hold caucuses, every state used them until the early 20th century, when corruption wrought by political machines led to the new primary systems. During election years, the first tests for the presidential hopefuls are the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary, which are held in late January or early February. These are often regarded as make or break tests for the candidates. Those that do well in these two states usually gain momentum and get a boost in campaign support. Many critics believe that the voters and concerns of these two smaller states are not representative of all of America, and that they play too much of a role in the election process. Critics also believe the elections suffer because many viable candidates withdraw after faring poorly in Iowa and New Hampshire. The second major test on the campaign trail is known as Super Tuesday, which is the second Tuesday in March. Many states hold primaries on this day, and generally, the clear favorite comes to the front as a result. After Super Tuesday, the trailing candidates typically withdraw from the race. Because of these circumstances, there have been many criticisms of the primary and caucus systems. The early timing of the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary extends the length of the campaign, forcing candidates to raise even larger sums of funding. Voters tend to lose interest over the long campaign, and in states with late primaries, many voters believe their vote is meaningless because the winning candidate has already been singled out. Despite these issues, the campaigns go on. A national political campaign is better than the best circus ever heard of, with a mass baptism and a couple of hangings thrown in. H. L. Minkin. The political campaigns shift into high gear after each party holds its national convention in July or August. The conventions are held for two reasons, to establish a party platform and candidate selection. A party platform is the set of directions, values and tenets the party believes in, and intends to promote during the remainder of the campaign. The goal of the platform is to create unity among the different factions of the party, in addition to establishing its agenda and goals. Candidate selection is the official nomination of the party's presidential and vice presidential candidates. A vote is taken among the delegates from each state, which cast a vote for the candidate selected in their state's primary or caucus. If this vote does not produce a consensus winner, a second vote is taken in which delegates are allowed to vote for any candidate. However, due to the primary and caucus system producing a clear frontrunner, the candidate selection process has become a mere formality, and is viewed as a nominee coronation. This has sapped much of the excitement from the conventions. The legions of reporters who cover politics don't want to quit the clash in the thunder of electoral combat for the dry duty of analyzing the federal budget. As a consequence, we have created the perpetual presidential campaign. USIDI, 1984. After the national conventions, the party candidates are ready to face off in the final stage of the presidential election process, the general elections. The day the ballots are cast is the Tuesday following the first Monday in November. But before this day comes, a great deal of debate, maneuvering, posturing and posing takes place, a process that puts the candidates under an intense microscope. A debate before 70 million people is in fact a distorting glass, a front house mirror in which wrinkles look like canyons, and hesitation like an attack of amnesia. Peter Goldman, 1984. Most elections feature an incumbent or the current president running against a challenger. Both of these positions have unique advantages and disadvantages. Incumbent presidents enjoy the benefit of free press coverage of their speeches and appearances simply because they are the president. They also have the advantage of acting presidential at national and international conferences and meetings to present themselves as confident and capable. They can improve their image through crisis management when confronting and resolving problems. Presidents also enjoy the benefit of credit claiming when they get credit for positive events they may or may not have influenced. However, incumbent presidents also must endure a set of challenges. Presidents are usually given the credit or blame for the economy, so if the economy goes into downturn prior to the election, it can send voters to the challenger's camp. Presidents also have to endure policy criticism. Their policies are in the headlines every day and receive a great deal of scrutiny, which can adversely affect a campaign. Also, a president's approval rating typically decreases over the course of his term in office, robbing momentum from a campaign. Presidential challengers have the advantage of being able to attack the president's policy decisions, using the leader's decisions and actions against him. Challengers can also promote their own political record, which is generally not as well known as the president's. There is also a great deal of momentum from the primaries and caucuses that can fuel a challenger's surge in the polls. Because the incumbent president generally runs unopposed, he gets little media coverage while the challenger is benefiting from extensive media exposure in the true primary race. Challengers often can use the claim of being a Washington outsider, in order to gain favor with Americans who have distrust for the federal government. This position has worked well for governors such as Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. While they enjoy these advantages, challengers face three distinct disadvantages. One is money. It is more difficult for challengers to raise campaign funds because they are less well known, and many potential donors are reluctant to give to an uncertain campaign. They also have usually not had a stage on which to display their presidential material. They have not been able to prove to voters whether they can succeed at a national and international level. Regionalism also has a bearing on challengers' campaigns. Because they are often closely identified with the state or region they come from, many voters from a different region are unwilling to vote for them. Regionalism is why many candidates choose a vice presidential running mate from a different region, in order to appeal to a more diverse group of voters. Another factor that affects both candidates from the two main parties is the presence of a popular third party candidate. Though there has never been a third party candidate win the general election, there have been many who have swayed enough votes to influence the outcome of the election.


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Hey traders, this is Tosh I go by T Bradley 90 in the my investing club chat a general reminder for those who do not know MIC is having a one-year anniversary event where bow is going to be trading live in front of our members It's coming up August 17th mark your calendars as an added benefit for our members The event is 100% and exclusively free for annual and lifetime members While lifetime on top of that get extra coaching before the event and guaranteed front-row seating While most charged for these events We show our support by making it again free for annual and lifetime members if you are interested in signing up for this event DM T Bradley 90 in MIC slack chat and or email myself at Tosh at my invest in club calm Now we have a very special video for you guys this week as Austin who goes by a loa trader one of our head Moderators in chat returns for his episode 10 of his weekly Thursday at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time webinar and this week He's going to talk about analyzing your trades and Austin's favorite setup And while today is just a preview of the full-length video if you want to watch the full-length or any of our exclusive content Then become an MIC member All right, so what we're gonna talk about today We're gonna go over the key traders and let me tell you I am scraping the barrel this week For for good trades or even good trades that I didn't take to talk about it's just been that slow This is kind of what I've been talking about week after week after week when I say what's to fear? What's to fear? What's to fear the July earning season about the slowest time? I think of the year like an argument can be made like Sometimes August is really slow, too But I think this is the worst time of the year for the small-cap plan July earning season It's just it's like it's in summer and it's earning season. It's the pinnacle of slowness. So That's what time I think we're in now. So I think good news. I think we're only You know, it only gets better from here. So we're gonna be going over the market sentiment Couple of trader topics that I get the most frequently asked questions of the week Yeah, good time to take a vacation. I think a lot of people do and that's why a lot of the Putty's kind of not there that dies off really really early We're gonna go over my favorite strategy my favorite setup later on and then we'll open the board Q&A so um Yeah, so I did not I had a nice trade on Netflix earlier early in the week It was a it was a really kind of like one of if I had to label the most classic setup I have in the large cap world. It's probably this one. It's a relative weakness short and so Right around here the spy was kind of being pretty strong and Netflix wasn't really holding it So like we got this nice tank out of the open while this while the spy was holding pretty strong So that immediately tells me that next week and this is coming off the context of this situation It's Netflix is coming off like huge earnings Beat down on their stock, right like it gap down huge what well under support And so I'm looking to kind of continue to fade a little bit thinking that everybody is under water Everybody there's a lot of people that need to sell that there's basically gonna be too much over Over-arguing demand pressure or sorry selling pressure And then so the next day, you know We we held pretty good up here, and I was kind of surprised that we did hold very good up here. So The next day I was thinking that we should have a bounce like this is so faded off that maybe like with that strong close Maybe there's more demand for the stock than than I had originally realized because I expected a breakdown and didn't get it. So I'm like, you know, maybe I can get this for a bounce, right? And so I try to bounce them given the good hold yesterday my target for this trade I've just checking to make sure I have a recording. Sorry. My target for this trade was that Was like 15 to 18 dollars Trying to get, you know above the kind of the open price for the open price of yesterday That's kind of where my idea was of the trade And you know, I quickly stopped out at green to red green to red is a really really really powerful indicator, right? It's kind of the it's the basis of the first red day short and it's also and it's probably I think next to support resistance It's you know, it's it's probably and VWAP like it's probably just the next most used indicator I think probably maybe moving average is beat it, but it's pretty up there, right? It's a very important It's a very important indicator and it's very powerful and I don't ever fight it right if something goes red It's really like I'm being stubborn if I'm holding a stock long through a red or if I'm holding a short as it rips Green right. I'm being very stubborn about holding that short or holding this long. So like most of the time I will always be Mixing my trade at a red to green or green to red cross and reassessing it later Like I would have re-bought right I would have re-bought of this reclaimed 311, but it never did next trade I think then the next day like I tried to short snap as it went up and but you know I got a little bit. It's really funny as it popped up to 1650.  I actually said that It's a it's a it's in the large gap option room. You can you can look at it and then I go and just go and short it So my idea for this for this trade on the front side was whenever you're shorting a front side You should always have an estimation of what your range is going to be right because you never want to go in blind Right, you need to have resistance levels. You're playing off of but I like to have resistance level I'm playing off of but I also like to You know guess what range is going to be relevant. What what range is the stock going to test? And so I picked 1650 to 17 and I got blown out of the water So I was wrong on my range estimation Right, the good good thing is is that my rule is that I never let myself go more than half-sized Well, you know before the trade starts to work So if I'm on the front side or if I'm on the anticipation part of a trade I both consider those front side right the anticipation part of a trade and some trades for the front side of a parabolic Both of these situations my favorite rule like is Never go half-sized before you're full and it saves me every single time Anyway, and so I traded Netflix again today Trading Netflix again today, and so I took this trade because it goes into kind of what I wanted to talk about Today in the webinar. So Like I was really keen like oh, maybe I'm gonna be able to show that like I did an example today, right? Like so I was kind of super keen for it Which is why I was I kind of allowed myself to get a little anticipation trade on it but anyway, so I Think about Netflix it had a huge bounce all the way back from 306 right and we're up to 320 This is the big bounce it got up near the top of the range from where the Word initially gap down from a few days ago, so I'm like this is kind of a large extended move I'm kind of hoping to get like a break that a breakdown back down to the like a 320 level You know back down to the 320 Or three like 1918 level thinking that we maybe fade off at the end of the day out. There's such a big run for two days and I kind of like I start in here and like and I knew like right as this happened I had a bad feeling that this was gonna trap But I still put a little bit of an ad on this because it was a little minor breakdown of 33 2350 But what I was saving my bullets for was this big low, right? This was the big low this 323 was the level of the afternoon that I knew I was willing to hammer because I thought it would look So good if I was able to I was able to show this in the webinar today So I'm like I'm more disappointed it didn't happen Then I didn't even make money off it because it would have looked and been perfectly timed amazing this but You know like then I gave it I gave it one last short. You're right near my wrist My wrist is 324 50 like I'm not you know the prior high I gave it one last chance to reject and you know when it's holding 324 I just I get out as a markets in it So I went over a little bit of this kind of right before the webinar, but The market has been such crap lately, right? Like the only things that's really been like up is like snap beyond a net, right? like in like these are like on my list of Like active market participants like the only green ones are coming from large caps like all the all the small caps are just kind of dying No volume nothing right like DMP. I totally faded MTP totally faded e-dap totally faded CHMA totally faded like The only ones that have been kind of working or a CHN are Ekr and they're not necessarily the most active they're kind of like just slowly chugging up here So I'm getting excited for these two in particular next week a CHN and our ekr OBLM to I'm watching OBLM because it's a recent reverse foot and I always have hope for those right? It's very fast that if they like to run after they reverse foot So that's gonna be on my watch this every single day this Thursday this weekend next week But yeah, just everything in small cat land is just kind of in depth right and it's funny last week We're kind of entering into the tanker's market is I remember I had My my ex on the tanker's market and here I think we're kind of into the dead market All right, so yeah, so like last week we were right here going into the tankers market here I think we're going right here into the dead market So it seems to be in this summer like so I noticed it in Like the busier times of the of the year like the by now ask questions later market tends to last like Weeks like a couple of weeks. There's good action, right? There's two three week period of good action right and and then there's like a two to three period We're like shorts are totally in control and then there's like a couple weeks where it's dead, right here It's like every single week. It's like we're just moving right It's just like there's a there's a quick little flurry then everything tanks and then there's nothing like every week It's like we're entering a new one So I think maybe the cycle gets smaller in the summer, but like in the busier times It takes a longer to go full cycle. So there are two different ways to analyze your trades and I want to go over both of them obviously So the first one is the obvious one and this is the one everyone kind of does the first one is how solid was your idea? You know, what was your thesis? How good was the thesis? Were you right? Were you wrong? Why were you right? Why were you wrong? Did the trade suck?  Or you know, did you shorten it or did you short snap at $5, right? Like How solid was your idea? So the question that you need to kind of ask yourself and review when you're going over your trades And I would do this I would honestly kind of you can do this at the end of every day I prefer to do it at the end of the week because then like you can look at multiple trades at once and see if there's a beam or a Pattern to your your your ideas So I think the best time to do this is at the end of the week instead of the end of the day But you know, whatever, you know to each of them, right? So this is the strategy. I kind of want to go over The overextended trend break and it is my absolute favorite setup in the world Like if I only and I and I went a little bit over I went over this a little bit in the webinar But it is my absolute favorite setup To date and it's a short setup It's it's it's a bread and butter account building setup and it used to happen all the all the time like all the time I remember the trade that really turned me on to this and like it was a long time ago I think it was HTTM or something like it really kind of turned my trading around when I just Stimplified this pattern. I think I was in 2016 or something but Anyway, so an overextended trend break is is when a stock a small cap runner normally Can be a large cap runner, but the small cap runners the bread and butter one for me It's when a stock is just running and running and running and it's had multiple like holes and a lot of short tracks and it keeps squeezing and it's just overextended and It's stock is very messy, right? But if if you just zoom out like literally just pick a five-minute chart or like a 15-minute chart or a 10-minute chart or something zoom out a little bit and and draw a major Major major major Highs and lows and it's just trend one-on-one. You're basically like an uptrend is defined by a higher lows And a downtrend is defined by lower highs, right? So ideally an up like for me this this could be just my opinion But I think it works the best is a higher low Is still intact as long as it's making higher lows or equal or higher lows? Even if it's not necessarily making higher highs the trend is Technically still intact as long as it hasn't made a lower low yet. Now, obviously it's ideal If it's making you know Higher high higher low higher high higher low and the and the reverse to the short as long as it's making lower highs You know like, you know, it cannot be making necessarily lower lows, but the lower highs are what's important on the short But for me like this is kind of the second half of it but the lower highs on a on an uptrend is The the indicator that the lower low is coming next and the lower high to the lower low is the trend one-on-one of a trend break Right, and whenever we find these these super active Runners, right? We find these super active runners The first like we don't we assume that small caps don't trend but they totally do trend They're just messy right be aware the trend is messy But but we get so zoomed in we get so focused like our P&Ls can be red or something We're focused on our P&L We're not we're zoomed into the stock and we're not paying attention that the stock is actually just making the simple patterns that we've learned when we were beginners, but I think When traders realize this like when I realize this like That the simple patterns work, but you need experienced eyes to see the simple patterns Like that's when things kind of just turn around that was a euphoric moment when I'm like What's my favorite large cap setup first red day? Just because it's like the most comfortable I think first red day and relative weakness relative weakness shorts and first and first red day shorts like when I look back at all of my Large cap trades the one that like I'm most green on all the time is the relative weakness short. Oh Yeah, you asked me this before. Sorry. I'm gonna get to that Austin wouldn't the Netflix trade a little bit like trying to bite the trend at 322 30 Trade a little bit like trying to bite the trend 322 point 30 was previous state sport level never broke under and never broke authority at three, right? Right, exactly. It hadn't broken yet. So I was I was definitely anticipating this trade a little bit, right and I Was definitely anticipating the trade a little bit and that's why I didn't really like Like but what my thesis for the trade was that it was starting to look like it was going to Kind of pull right so we were having this nice this trend up here, but then like this was the first lower high This is the first lower high and then a little bit of a low You know kind of a lower low right here equal low or three tests It showed weakness to me So I was like right up right after this first lower high was when I started to think that we might be getting into Some bearish territory here and this is where I felt like it was like the moment of truth, right? This is like a break of 323 and that's it so 323 definitely confirmed the thesis. That's right But um this this lower high is what kicked it off for me like why didn't this why didn't this keep breaking higher? Right. So like middle of the day lower high Maybe we start to taper off and I can I still like I would have liked to have seen it under 323 I think you know, this might not have happened No, I know I have none Just me that's why I'm I'm just I don't have friends during the week. I only have friends on the weekend Um, bro, how do you deal with slow months weeks aside from vacation like it sucks? Honestly, like I mean I take more naps like I take more naps like this Like this is the first like a couple Sundays ago. What's the first Sunday? I ever ever ever like Just stayed up, right? So like I do take a little bit more time off. I take a little bit more naps I don't stay for the middle of the day right like After I've after I've been doing calls and stuff with an M. I see I just mean I have a kitty But yeah, like I just take time off. I don't try to overstay I try to nail and bail more in the mornings, right? I don't have a lot of super patience with a lot of my trades That's kind of how I deal with it.  I don't know. I wasn't I wasn't told I need to have one, but like, you know, do one I don't know honestly what I would what I would pick Kind of home without a vacation week, I don't know I need one Do you typically so I don't know it's the answer sorry Do you typically base your relative weakness for a thought? Yeah It's it's it's normally just the spy like Like every now and then like I will look at like a competitor, right? Like I'll look at like If it's super relevant that are like Delta or American Airlines or something then I'll look at that But like I mean, I maybe make two trades like that a year So It's mostly the spy, but you know, I could definitely justify using a What's what's the finance report a calm? Calm, how do you identify death line? So I Identify the death line as the last major support the last major support so it's my opinion that large cap stocks don't typically have depth lines because The idea of a death line is that the stock dead after and large caps don't really die Small caps die and then like a new one pops out a new flower pops up the next day, right? So Now a death line can happen on a large cap if there's a catalyst driving a large a big large cap move But then there's like a technical death line where maybe the catalyst runs it runs its course and stock goes back Like an overblown catalyst and the stock goes back to where it was trading before the catalyst Even if it's a large cap and I think kind of like a similar death line strat if you can be applied to large caps Well, I think most of the time it's small caps and it's the last major support the one where Any reasonable longs? That's their last chance of the stock holding. I do have a kitty Slow months watch training videos green time with charts track trades track trades You want to start pretty yeah, or even like trade them 10 chairs like you know what I mean like practice, right? I think 10 chair trades are better than than paper trades. Just you're actually in it even you know Like you're not going to lose any money, but like you're actually in it and you feel something Right, it's just practice Does your phone will intensify after missing a trade and how do you prove it?  How bad am I going to feel? That's how you curb it, right? You just you you try to predict how ugly you're going to feel if the trade happens That's how I curve it like up, you know, I just like how like am I get like would I Would you be proud to show off this trade if it doesn't work? Would you take this trade again? That's how you do it. You anticipate your analysis of the trade and be like if this doesn't work Like I want it to and I end up stopping out am I going to be able to say will I take this trade again? Hey traders, this is Tosh I go by T Bradley 90 in the my investing club chat Just wanted to reach out and say if you have any questions about M. I see joining M. I see maybe you're a member already You have three ways to contact myself personally and through M. I see you can hit our social media You can hit me through pms in chat or you can contact us through my email at Tosh at my investing club calm That's TOS H at my investing club calm I will get back to you in a timely manner and I'm saying this because I'm here to help and I don't want anybody to be Afraid to reach out and ask any question that they have. We are here for you guys. All right. See you guys


Hi, my name is Elizabeth Callahan, I'm the fitness coordinator at the Drew Wellness Center. We are hosting a Jumpstart Your Heart Day Party here at the center. It is 2101 Walker Solomon Way. It will be February 10th from 11 to 2. We're going to be having some family fun here with some racing. We're going to be doing classes like Zumba, HIIT, yoga, Midlands Orthopedics, also going to come out doing some massages and Prisma Health will also be here doing some health screenings. Jumpstart Your Heart Day Party is hosted by the City of Columbia, Public Relations, Media Marketing Department and the Drew Wellness Center. We can't wait to see you at the Drew Wellness Center February 10th. Come out and see us.