Knocking it out of the park again @protegeaa. I was just commenting on a similar post the other day that I made some mistakes when I started. I bought some power when I started, the first was 34.76 SP (@$6/SP) the second time I sent 1.29 LTC for 48.268 SP. The ratio was 37:1, the current ratio is 82:1.
Its not the price collapse that I am disappointed in, but what I got in return. Yes I got off the donated SP, felt like I had skin in the game, but I am still basically powerless my vote is still .01 to .02. If instead I had bought ,into SBD to use smartmarket, I think the results would be much different. I would have gained SP from the posts while getting 75% of the SBD back to recycle again until spent.
That is why I just send over enough LTC last week to spend 1-2 on each post i get out in a week for SmartSteem. It will build my SP and return some SBD to recycle. I will continue to lease small amounts of SP and convert the Steem to SBD if needed for votes to continue.
The lease is interesting but I run into ethical dilemma. With an vote of .95, to get value out of your lease you would at a minimum self up vote 10 comments or posts a day for a daily return of 9.5 SBD/SP, for the week that is 66.5, converted back a flat prices of $166.25 USD unless I am missing something. I would also be tempted to go ballistic on the last day and vote my power all the way down when my lease was ending. I don't know why but with leased power I would feel like I need to get all the return I could, while with daily votes I feel like I need to give them to those who create good content. I don't want to feel like I can't up vote others.
Once again my replies might be better content than my posts!
Thanks for sharing your perspective.
I think leasing SP requires some forethought. If you're going to pay money to give money away, you need to ensure you have a plan to maximize it. Otherwise you're just enriching delegators.
Check out user @d-pend. I delegate to him and he has grown a pretty big following. He runs poetry contests and stuff...it seems like a very intelligent way to use SP.
You're right to run down your voting power to zero the last day. Delegators don't get their power back for a week anyway, so it won't affect them. If at any time during a lease you are fully powered up, you are not using your lease fully.