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Fundamental_Analysis_for_stocks.mp4

If you are someone who wants to get their feet wet in the world of the Stock Market but you don’t want to risk a lot of money, then a great way to get started is by starting with Penny Stock investments. These are also known as pink sheets or OTC Stocks, are from companies Trading in The Stock Market, usually with a smaller amount of shares, typically, under $200 million. Would you like to learn a little bit more?

These stocks are those that are worth less than a dollar, although some people consider any stock valued under $5 to be a penny stock. Regardless of what their price is, pink sheets are great to get started due to the fact that you can invest a relative amount of money and turn a big profit. It is not uncommon for these types of stocks to report pretty substantial gains. Sometimes 200% or higher.

But listen, before you go running to invest in the first few Penny Stocks that you come across, you need to also realize that sometimes, these Otc Stocks under perform tremendously and you can lose and waste a lot of time and money. Now, I don’t think you want to just throw your money away, or do you?

So, how can you learn and discover what are the top 10, hottest penny stocks or OTC instruments to invest in? easy! you sign up to receive Otc Stock alerts. These alerts are newsletters and they will cover a lot of information and will help you figure out winners from losers and help you avoid picking the stinky ones that are only going to cost you your time and hard earned cash.

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Whats the best Video card for under 300$?

I’m picking out a card and i cant decide which one to get. Main one right now I’m thinking of getting is MSI Gtx 275 overclocked and want to know whats the best card for under 300$ Newegg reviews are 5 eggs on the card and it doesn’t have a stock cooler they put a dual fan cooler on it.

The best card easily in that price range is the Radeon 5850 at $300-310. It’s the second best single card available right under the 5870. I have the Sapphire one myself. It is more powerful than the 275 GTX, 280 GTX, and slightly more than even the 285 GTX

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=5850

Don’t miss the tech stock revival: voice, video, and data are breathing new life into tech stocks. Richard Shaw identifies tomorrow’s winners.(STOCK PICKS)(senior … An article from: Black Enterprise $9.95 This digital document is an article from Black Enterprise, published by Earl G. Graves Publishing Co., Inc. on December 1, 2009. The length of the article is 1320 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.Citation DetailsTitle: Don’t miss the tech …

Stock Picks and Technical Analysis Market Timing – StockMarketVideo.com: May 30, 2010

People have made a fortune by Trading in oil Stocks. Possession of an oil stock means that you have a share of ownership in that particular oil company. With the prices of crude oil increasing, the oil stocks you purchase today can earn you handsome returns tomorrow.

Oil companies are generally involved in the exploration and refining of the oil. Crude Oil is refined into fuel for consumption and in doing so they also recover kerosene and gasoline as by-products. The price of crude oil is generally market linked and so in case of a global crisis, the prices of oil will increase. Similarly, if any of the oil producing nations comes under attack then also the prices of crude oil increases in the market due to the supply chain being affected. In short, it can be said that the oil market pricing is driven by the supply in the market. Big oil companies like Shell, Enron and BP have been posting huge profits year after year considering that the prices of crude oil has risen steeply in the market in the last couple of years. Investors holding the stocks of these companies involved in exploration and refining of petroleum products have seen their share prices increase in the past few years and not only that but they also regularly receive dividends.

So, how can one participate in the profits of these oil companies? The simplest way is to buy an oil well in the Middle East and ask these companies to drill the oil for you, but this is not feasible. Your best bet then is to pick up some oil stocks to invest in, considering that almost all of them are making profits. Do a market analysis and invest in the top performing stocks because you will definitely stand to benefits from the profit of these companies. Look out for stock of oil companies who are regularly giving dividends because it means that the company’s balance sheet is healthy. Another way to invest in these oil companies is through the Mutual Funds route. This is good for those people who have a limited knowledge of the Stock Market and would like the fund manager to take the investment decisions on his behalf.

Want to see your money grow? I would suggest that you invest your money in stocks of oil companies because like gold, they are also likely to give you handsome returns in the future.

Learning more about which oil stocks to invest in can be done by doing extensive research online.

best pick of stock for tomorrow?

Never listen to advice on buying specific stocks. Make your own decisions. Wipro is at $16.50+ and was at $11 last June. Last March it was under $15. “Williams%R” – Technical analysis shows that it is in the middle road of buy and sell. The combined analysts low target price is $15 and the high is $18. Wait and watch as this was trending down and will most likely go to $15.50 and start to climb again. I like Wipro but the charts haven’t shown evidence of being a “buy” yet. Visit http://finance.yahoo.com for your own analysis. You can also visit my www.wmeu.org website for my contact information if you would like to discuss further via phone or emails.

Stock Market Crash explained 2of2 Dow Jones collapse

What the European Crisis Really Means for The Stock Market

You’ve got to love today’s stock market.

It’s up over 100 points one day, down over 100 points the next. When the market drops more than one percent, the popular Internet sites are quick to quote analysts who say the market rally is over. When the market is up over 100 points, we get other analysts telling us that Dow Jones 12,000 is in the cards.

There is no doubt that the financial crisis in Greece can be contagious. Spain, Portugal, Italy…are they next? I think they are, and I have written about this in the past. The euro unraveling is a good thing for the American dollar and a very good thing for Britain, which early on decided to pass on joining the euro, deciding to keep its own currency.

In each of the past three years, when I’ve travelled to Europe, I’ve come away wondering how the citizens of these countries support themselves. A school teacher in Italy makes about 20,000 euros ($30,000 U.S.) a year, while the median salary for the same job in the U.S. is about $50,000 — but the cost of living is much greater in Europe! (The best job to get in Europe is a government job. The pay is great, so are the pensions and health benefits. I’m afraid America may be going the same route.)

The real concern here, and I hate to keep bringing it up, is interest rates. If Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy default on their debt, interest rates in the euro zone will need to rise substantially to attract capital. This will put pressure on interest rates to rise in North America.

So, there is no question about interest rates rising globally. The real question is: when will the bear market rally that started in March 2009 call it quits? The stock market is the smartest investor in the world. It knows higher interest rates are ahead of us.

But, at the same time, I believe that the bear market has not finished its job of bringing more people back into the stock market. I remain in the camp that believes that the bear market rally has more room on the upside, European economic crisis or not.

Michael’s Personal Notes:

Early this past Sunday morning, I went with my kids and some of their friends to the Apple store at Central Park in Manhattan. There were more people at that store than you would find in Sunday morning mass. For today’s young kids, Apple has become their religion of technology.

For the remainder of the weekend, I kept thinking about the sea of people I saw at the “Mac” store. Why is Apple so successful as a business, I kept wondering? My conclusion is that Apple has become a culture. Masterfully, the company moved from building a business to creating a culture. And for today’s young people, it is all about culture. I believe that Apple has mastered this more than any other company on earth.

You may have heard about the “iPad.” It is Apple’s newest creation. A 9.7-inch, wireless touch screen, on which the user can watch a video, play games, surf the Web, read electronic books and even download applications. Apple sold over one million iPads in less
than 30 days. Of course, many of the buyers were current Apple fans who couldn’t wait to get their hands on the next Apple gadget.

The textbooks on building a business need to be changed, because times have changed. Creating a community, creating a culture, is what leads to success today. We are a long way from when Sears Roebuck came out with the first mail-order catalogue in 1888. Back then, it was about convenience; today it is about culture. There is no convenience for the hundreds of people travelling to a Mac store early Sunday AM, but there is culture.

(Just a note to the many subscribers who e-mailed me last week to say it was Charlie Sheen that stars in the sitcom, “Two and a Half Men.” I realize this. That particular “Michael’s Personal Notes” piece was on my distaste for TV and the mixing up of Martin and Charlie
Sheen was a joke on how little I know about TV and its stars. My readers are very sharp. We had over 100 e-mails pointing out the difference between Martin and Charlie Sheen.)

Where the Market Stands:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average opens this morning up 4.7% for the year.

What He Said:

“The U.S. decreased interest rates in 2004 to their lowest level in 46 years. And what did Americans do with their access to easy money? They borrowed and borrowed some more, Investing the borrowed money into real estate. Looking ahead, perhaps the Fed’s actions (of bringing interest rates down so low as to entice consumers to borrow more than they can afford) will one day be regarded as one of the most costly errors committed by it or any other banking system in the last 75 years.” Michael Lombardi in PROFIT CONFIDENTIAL,
July 21, 2005. Long before anyone was thinking of a banking crisis, Michael was warning that the coming real estate bust would cause havoc with the banking system.

About the Author

Michael Lombardi, MBA bought his first stock when he was 17 years old. He quickly saw $2,000 of savings from summer jobs turn into $1,000. Determined not to lose money again on a stock, Michael started researching the market intensely, reading every book he could find on the topic and taking every course he could afford. It didn’t take long for Michael to start making money with Stocks, and that led Michael to launch a newsletter on the stock market. Today, Michael only employs the top market analysts and editors. Some of our recommendations have posted gains in excess of 500%! Michael has authored and published over one thousand articles on investment and money management. Along the way to building Lombardi Publishing Corporation, now with over one million customers in 141 countries, Michael became an active investor in real estate, art, precious metals and various businesses. Readers of the daily Profit Confidential e-letter are offered the benefit of the expertise Michael has gained in these sectors. Michael believes in successful Stock Picking as an important wealth accumulation tool. Married with two children, Michael received his Chartered Financial Planner designation from the Financial Planners Standards Council of Canada and his MBA from the Graduate Business School, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland.

why does the Dow Jones reading change from the end of Trading one day to the start of trading another day.?

For example at the end of trading on a Friday the Dow Jones sat at 13442. Yet at the start of foreign trade early Monday morning before The Stock Markets open in New York it now reads 13536 yet at that time it shows a loss of roughly 20 points. How can the Dow Jones level be higher when there has been a loss from the end of trade one day to the start of another. I have noticed this before that the Dow is stated to end the day at a particular level, yet when trading begins, even with a loss, it is still higher than the end of the previous day. Can you explain the difference in its level from the end of one day to the start of the next without the markets being open.

Because orders for the stocks on the Dow are placed between the time it closes the previous day and the time it opens the following day. That creates a backlog that has to be balanced by the specialists and market makers. Its kind of like a checking account with checks and deposits that have come in over night. Especially electronic deposits that clear after business hours. The opening balance today isnt going to be the same as the closing balance yesterday.

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No 1 Trader Vince Stanzione Live Making Money From Global Financial Markets

Europe Is Being Held Together With Duct Tape

Among its many other sins, the greenback is a press hog. The world’s reserve currency, loved and loathed as it is, simply gets most of the ink these days.

In that light many a U.S.-based commentator, not least your cynical Taipan Daily scribes, have repeatedly waxed eloquent on the long-run death of the dollar.

But in our zeal we sometimes forget that, in order for the dollar to die, it has to die relative to other fiat currency offerings… and some of those others are looking pretty sick too. (The main exception, of course, being gold – the one and only “stateless currency” not subject to the whims of a printing press. As Grant’s Interest Rate Observer quips, “Show us a monetary asset whose value is not subject to governmental debasement and we will show you a Krugerrand.”)

In short, the dollar is not the only basket case out there. Take the euro, for example. Now there’s a troubled currency if ever one existed.

As pollyanna stock market bulls are finding out the hard way, rising interest rates (via falling bond prices) can have ugly consequences. The same is true of a rising currency when coupled with a weak economic backdrop.

In this particular case, the stronger the euro gets, the more it cuts into European export sales. At a time when most all of Europe is sick, the economic pain of a too-strong currency becomes intense above a certain threshold.

On top of that, various bits of Europe are in the process of blowing up… or falling apart… or both. There is deep trouble brewing in multiple corners of the continent. Let’s take a quick look on a country-by-country basis to see why Europe is being held together with duct tape.

Britain on the Brink

We’ll start with Britain – not an adopter of the euro, but a member of the EU (European Union) nonetheless.

Britain has been hurled into political chaos, thanks to an unholy combo of deep financial crisis, explosive Labour Party scandals, and the hapless lame-duck status of embattled Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Cabinet Ministers are resigning left and right in protest as Brown’s popularity plummets, calling for the PM to step down. Election results tallied this week showed the Labour Party (Brown’s party) putting in its worst showing since 1918.

Philip Stevens, chief political commentator for the Financial Times, sees an ominous chain of events now set in motion. “Everyone thought the [election] results would be bad,” Stephens reports. “But these [results] are calamitous… the Prime Minister was prepared, if you like, for very bad results. He’s now got to grapple with absolutely terrible results.”

If the Brown government fails, Britain will be left rudderless in the midst of the worst fiscal storm in decades. In a worst-case scenario where bad events lead to worse decisions, opines Stephens, the domino chain could even lead to a British exit from the EU.

This outbreak of chaos is awful and unsettling for the British economy – and by extension awful and unsettling for Europe. As of this writing, it is not yet clear whether Prime Minister Brown can survive a political coup… or even whether he would be better off resigning, Dick Nixon style, in the interest of sparing greater turmoil.

Latvian Pressure Cooker

Elsewhere in Europe, Latvia, a tiny country of 2.2 million, threatens to unleash havoc on the entire continent.

Latvia’s currency, appropriately known as the lat, is officially pegged to the euro. Latvia set up the currency peg to speed up official entry into the EU. But now the fiscal discipline of maintaining the peg is crushing the Latvian economy.

At one time, Latvia was an Eastern European tiger, growing by leaps and bounds. But, like many other countries, Latvia found itself badly caught out by the financial crisis. Just when credit lines were needed the most to shore up a cratering home front, Latvia found it suddenly impossible to borrow. Credit was desperately needed. An attempt to issue $100 million worth of lat-denominated bonds resulted in no takers.

Normally, a small country with an imploding economy would simply devalue the currency to make exports more competitive. But if Latvia devalues now, all kinds of ugly fallout will follow.

For one, the Swedish and Austrian banks that lent heavily to Latvia would take huge, destabilizing losses. Worse, other Eastern European neighbors, like Lithuania and Estonia (and Bulgaria farther south), would see their own currency pegs threatened.

And even worse still, a wholesale lat devaluation would crush many Latvian businesses (due to loads of foreign currency-denominated debt on the books) and kill Latvia’s shot at eventual EU acceptance.

So, with the help of emergency financing from the IMF and European Union, Latvia has vowed to keep on keeping on. The currency peg will not go undefended. But in order to maintain that peg in the face of economic hardship, Latvia will need to cut wages and spending to the bone. This, too, is dire medicine for a small country struggling under the weight of great debt.

Some believe Latvia will be forced to devalue, in spite of all the pain it would cause for both the tiny country itself and many surrounding neighbors. The pressure might just prove too great, as the pressure was too great in 1992 when Britain was forced to devalue the pound and drop out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM).

In a way, Latvia is damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t. Some argue that the peg must be defended at all costs, lest the whole of Eastern Europe be lost. If Lithuania and Estonia are sucked into a currency pain vortex, the EU could lose its political hold on the region – and Russia could rush in to fill the torment-filled vacuum.

It would be so much easier (and simpler) if the value of the euro were to fall from current high levels. This would ease Latvia’s pain, as well as a number of other struggling countries. But there is a huge and intractable obstacle there – Germany.

Germany in a World of Its Own

As the global financial crisis has unfolded, Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, has been looked on with increasing amounts of admiration and horror, depending on the observer’s vantage point.

Those who admire Merkel do so because Germany has appeared to completely go its own way in the midst of turmoil. As other countries have stimulated and relaxed and eased to fight the fires of slowdown, Germany has said “Nein!” to anything that smacks of lax fiscal policy.

In a speech last week, Chancellor Merkel even went out of her way to slam the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England, stating plainly that “I view with great skepticism the powers of the Fed… and also how, within Europe, the Bank of England has carved out its own line.” Within the subtle context of diplomacy and statecraft, those are amazingly blunt words. Merkel has all but called the stimulators a bunch of out-of-control fools.

Many admire Germany’s fiscal backbone. But others are horrified, and terrified, by Germany’s lack of willingness to show any type of bend or flex in monetary policy.

Remember the Latvia problem? Many other rapidly imploding European economies, like those of Ireland and Spain, are also struggling with the weight of a too-strong euro hurting export prospects. But in its zeal for fiscal responsibility, Germany will probably remain steadfast in its opposition to any loosening of the purse strings.

The stance is cultural and historical. Having lived through the horror of hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic in the 1920s, Germany emerged from its baptism by fire as a zealous hard-money advocate. Rigid fiscal discipline has been a political rallying cry in Germany ever since. So when Chancellor Merkel takes an especially hard line against the easy-money inflationists, she is doing so with an eye for public approval ratings at home.

The trouble is, even Germany can barely afford its own righteousness. The German economy still depends heavily on exports… and so an overly strong euro hurts Deutschland too.

The Rise of the Far Right

Last but not least, a surprising new trend has arisen from the EU-wide elections held in the past few days.

“Conservatives raced toward victory in some of Europe’s largest economies Sunday,” the Associated Press reports, “as initial results and exit polls showed voters punishing left-leaning parties in European parliament elections in France, Germany and elsewhere.”

The rise includes not just the right, but the far right. In Britain, the British National Party – an openly racist party that only admits whites – gained a seat for the first time. In various other countries, openly nationalist parties gained fresh power either for the first time also, or for the first time in quite a long while.

“It is not clear why a chunk of the blue-collar working base has swung almost overnight from Left to Right,” says Ambrose Pritchard of the U.K. Telegraph. “But clearly we are seeing the delayed detonation of two political time-bombs: rising unemployment and the growth of immigrant enclaves that resist assimilation.”

A Poisonous Stew

There are still other problems in Europe we haven’t really touched on, like the Spanish real estate markets headed for freefall, the dire state of the Irish economy (joke du jour on the Emerald Isle: What’s the difference between Ireland and Iceland? The letter ‘C’) and the toxic leverage still lurking in European banks.

Put all this together, and what you get is a truly poisonous stew. Half of Europe is still committed to fiscal stimulus and economic coordination… while the other half has swung inward and hard right, towards a nationalist and isolationist stance, at a time when exports are weak and the whole continent is in trouble.

If Pritchard is right in his gloomy assessments, we could be witnessing a scenario where steely fiscal discipline, though a virtue early on, becomes a terrible vice this late in the game. “The irony is that those fretting loudest about inflation may themselves tip us into outright deflation, with all the perils of a debt compound trap,” Pritchard opines. “It is Angela Merkel who plays with fire.”

By now the Trading takeaway should be fairly obvious. The dollar is not the only paper currency with crash and burn potential. The euro could make for one hell of a great short when the time is right. Whether that time comes sooner or later depends on how events unfold… and how quickly the threat of deflationary vice grip leads to inflationary panic (as ultimately occurs in all unsound paper regimes, when the desperate hope of the printing press is embraced as last resort). Macro Trader will be watching the charts with keen interest.

About the Author

Justice Litle is Editorial Director for Taipan Publishing Group. He is also a regular contributor to Taipan Daily, a free Investing and trading e-letter, editor of Taipan’s Safe Haven Investor and Justice Litle’s Macro Trader.

Can a person living in Africa invest in British and US Markets and how ?

My friend , who lives in Zimbabwe which currently is experiencing hyperinflation wants to invest his foreign currency earned from his flower export on British and USA stock markets or investment companies so that he does not loose his retirement funds .he has about US10 000 . He is worried sick and i cannot help .Any specific Investment vehicles he can use since he can not come physically to Europe .

The standard requirement to open a brokerage account is to provide enough identification to prove where you live and who you are. That normally means they take a copy of your passport and a utility bill. I have opened a brokerage account in the UK and the US and both times it was quick and easy once I produced an identification.

In most cases it doesn’t matter where you live. The rules are the same for everyone, and the brokerage companies will be happy to take your money even if you’re living on the other side of the world. If you can pass the identification requirements and pay the fees then you’re in.

There are a tiny number of countries where the US and UK regulators consider that there are no effective money laundering controls in place and they will not allow citizens of those countries to open brokerage accounts. It is considered too dangerous – accounts from those countries would be used for criminal purposes. You need to check but I’m pretty sure Zimbabwe is one of those countries. The others I know of are Burma, Iraq, Iran, Syria and North Korea.

So a person living in Zimbabwe will not be able to directly invest in the British and US Markets.

Wall Street – New York Stock Exchange – August 2009

A Brief History of Stock Market Growth and Expansion

A brief history of The Stock Market might tell you that the world’s first stock exchange was in Italy or in Egypt or even in France, but no matter where they originated, the concept of a place to trade Stocks and bonds has taken firm root and stock exchanges are now the cornerstone of our financial marketplace. The first American stock exchange was established in 1792 in New York at the intersection of Wall Street and Bond Street and it continues to be there today, having grown into one of the world’s most influential stock markets. It is aptly called the New York Stock Exchange. A brief history of Stock Market Trading will show that the 1800s were a time of great innovation and growth for the stock market. It was in this century that government bonds, insurance and bank stocks started actively trading. It was also during this time that street trading was prohibited and the NYSE found a home on Wall Street in a building of its own. Specialists were installed at particular locations on the trading floor to facilitate stock trade. The 1900s were the time of the Industrial Revolution and saw much growth and expansion in The Stock Markets and their associated regulatory agencies. The Federal Reserve was set up to regulate the banking structure of the nation and New York gained popularity as the world’s financial capital supplanting London as the previous financial hub. The 1900s also saw the rise of speculators in a secondary trading market. Eventually this century was witness to one of the greatest stock market crashes in history, where stocks plunged and the Dow hit rock bottom by decreasing 89% in the period from 1929- 1932. This period immediately following the Stock Market Crash was called The Great Depression because it saw many people lose their savings, lose their jobs and and some even lose their lives. The stock market crash brought about much-needed regulatory changes into the stock market. The result was the passing of the Securities and Exchange Act which saw the formation of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC is responsible for helping to ensure that such a crash never happens again by closely monitoring and regulating trading practices and ensuring that companies offer all relevant disclosure to the public at the time of going public. Today there are a lot of new initiatives taken by the NYSE and other American exchanges such as a paperless office, women on the trading floor, real time stock tickers on CNN-FN and CNBC, an updated technology plan for the trading floor, global indexes, and representative offices around the world. Beginner investors can learn a lot about the stock market by reading this and other related items outlining the brief history of stock market buoyancy and crashes – this will in turn help them understand what powers a bull or bear market and how to spot one coming like the financial pros do.

About the Author

Kelly Clifford from StockMarketsMadeSimple.com has put together a complimentary report titled “Stock Market Basics: A Beginners Guide To Understanding The Stock Market” that will likely prove invaluable in putting you on the fast track to becoming a knowledgable and successful Stock Market Investor. To download your copy now instantly.. visit http://www.stockmarketsmadesimple.com/index.php

Are you ready for the next Wall Street Collapse this fall?

plummeting home values (AND I MEAN PLUMETTING). You will be able to buy a mansion around here in a few months for $50,000. People losing their jobs. The government artificially keeping the automotive industry alive for a few months with the “cash for clunkers” program. OPEN YOUR EYES PEOPLE. THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF THE END.

LOL nice trolling, unless you’re serious. Then your delusional rant is just sad and pathetic.

The Gorilla Game: Picking Winners in High Technology $2.68 Finding the next Microsoft has been the Holy Grail for many investors. However, anyone who has dabbled in technology stocks can’t help but be dismayed at their extreme volatility–it’s not unusual for tech stocks to gain or lose 10 to 20 percent in a single day. So how can you win in this market and find the next Cisco, Intel, or Oracle? The key to winning, says bestselling author Geoffrey M…

Market Technical Analysis – Rally Monkey! 01-28-09

Rally Monkey

Daily Market Commentary for October 28, 2008 from Millennium-Traders.Com

The rally monkey was very content doing the rally jig, into the end of todays Trading session. Quite a turn around in the markets today as the Bulls had clear and present control of the market direction with the DOW pounding out a whopping triple digit gain into the mid-afternoon trading session.  (read more)
http://www.millennium-traders.com/news/newscommentary.aspx

Economic data released today:
Consumer Confidence: Conference Board October Present Situation Index came in at 41.9 versus reading in September of 61.1; Conference Board October Expectations Index came in at 35.5 versus September reading  of 61.5; Conference Board Consumer Confidence hit all time low during October.

At the NYSE closing bell on the New York Stock Exchange, here is how the major world indices and major U.S. stock indices ended the session on the world market as well as the emerging markets including the Stock Market closing bell price:
DOW (Dow Jones Industrial Average) triple digit gain of 889.35 points on the day to end the trading session at 9,065.12
NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) triple digit gain of 536.92 points to end the trading session at 5,733.45
National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ) triple digit gain of 143.57 points to end the trading session at 1,649.47
S&P 500 gain of 91.59 points to end the trading session at 940.51
FTSE All-World excluding U.S. gain of 9.49 points to end the trading session at 143.12
FTSE RAFI 1000 triple digit gain of 341.21 points to end the trading session at 3,640.00
BEL 20 (BEL20) gain of 44.14 points to end the trading session at 1,898.35
CAC 40 (CAC40) gain of 47.57 points to end the trading session at 3,114.92
FTSE100 (UKX100) gain of 73.79 points to end the trading session at 3,926.38
NIKKEI 225 (NIK/O) triple digit gain of 459.02 points to end the trading session at 7,621.92

New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Stock Market Indicators for the day:
Advanced stock prices 2,521, declined stock prices 722; unchanged stock prices 56; stock prices hitting new highs 2 and stock prices hitting new lows 2. NYSE quotes for volatile Stocks and market trends, as well as Stock Quotes, stock prices and stock symbols of Day Trading Stock Picks on the New York Stock Exchange stock market for Day Trading online and active Day Trading for those who are or would like to be Day Trading for a living: Tyson Foods Incorporated (NYSE: TSN) Stock Price gained 0.01 points on the trading session, high on the trading session $8.28, low on the trading session $5.71 with a closing stock price at $8.00; Alcon Incorporated (NYSE: ACL) stock price gained 1.40 points on the trading session, high on the trading session $88.00, low on the trading session $74.51 with a closing stock price at $86.99; Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE: VLO) stock price gained 1.70 points on the trading session, high on the trading session $17.17, low on the trading session $15.69 with a closing stock price at $16.81; United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X) stock price gained 4.38 points on the trading session, high on the trading session $36.20, low on the trading session $28.43 with a closing stock price at $35.20; Choice Hotels International (NYSE: CHH) stock price gained 4.69 points on the trading session, high on the trading session $26.41 low on the trading session $22.60 with a closing stock price at $25.55; Crane Corporation (NYSE: CR) stock price shed 2.03 points on the trading session, high on the trading session $14.40, low on the trading session $11.01 with a closing stock price at $13.83; Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) stock price gained 1.47 points on the trading session, high on the trading session $15.50, low on the trading session $10.15 with a closing stock price at $15.20; Potash Corporation Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT) stock price gained 6.17 points on the trading session, high on the trading session $70.05, low on the trading session $61.69 with a closing stock price at $70.05; Covance Incorporated (NYSE: CVD) stock price shed 2.14 points on the trading session, high on the trading session $47.13, low on the trading session $41.65 with a closing stock price at $43.77.

National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ) stock market indicators today:
Advanced stock prices 2,015; declined stock prices 915; unchanged stock prices 122; stock prices hitting new highs 6; stock prices hitting new lows 617. NASDAQ quotes, volatile stocks and market trends, as well as stock quotes, stock prices and stock symbols of Day Trading Stock Picks on the Nasdaq Stock market for Day Trading online and active Day Trading for those who are or would like to be Day Trading for a living: First Solar Incorporated (NasdaqGS: FSLR) stock price gained 7.09 points on the trading session, high on the trading session $115.53, low on the trading session $95.32 with a closing stock price at $115.00; Masimo Corporation (NasdaqGS: MASI) stock price gained 2.68 points on the trading session, high on the trading session $28.56, low on the trading session $24.29 with a closing stock price at $27.00; Rent-A-Center Incorporated (NasdaqGS: RCII) stock price shed 3.97 points on the trading session, high on the trading session $14.87, low on the trading session $9.97 with a closing stock price at $11.51; Rigel Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NasdaqGS: RIGL) stock price shed 2.24 points on the trading session, high on the trading session $8.70, low on the trading session $5.60 with a closing stock price at $6.59; Google, Incorporated (NasdaqGS: GOOG) stock price gained 39.18 points on the trading session, high on the trading session $369.31, low on the trading session $328.51 with a closing stock price at $368.67.

Market trends on the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) and stock market indicators for today:
Advanced stock prices 717; declined stock prices 450; unchanged stock prices 82; stock prices hitting new highs 1 and stock prices hitting new lows n/a.

Chicago Board of Trade Futures Market activity for the day, at time of this posting for December 2008 Contracts:
E-mini S&P 500 (ES) end of day price 939.00 change 104.25
E-mini NASDAQ-100 (NQ) end of day price 1,306.25 change 144.25
E-mini S&P SmallCap 600 (SMP) end of day price 259.40 change 22.10
$5 DJIA (YM) end of day price 9,092 change 1,081

World Currencies for the Forex Market, for Forex Trading by active Forex Traders, at time of this posting:
Euro 0.7870 to U.S. Dollars 1.2707
Japanese Yen 97.58 to U.S. Dollars 0.0102
British Pound 0.6282 to U.S. Dollars 1.5919
Canadian Dollar 1.2797 to U.S. Dollars 0.7814
Swiss Franc 1.1556 to U.S. Dollars 0.8654

Commodity Markets:
Energy Sector: Light Crude (NYMEX: NYM) shed $0.49 on the day for a closing price of $62.73 a barrel ($US per barrel)
Heating Oil (NYMEX: NYM) shed $0.00 on the day for a closing price of $1.93 a gallon ($US per gallon)
Natural Gas (NYMEX: NYM) gained $0.07 on the day for a closing price of $6.70 per million BTU ($US per mmbtu.)
Unleaded Gas (NYMEX: NYM) shed $0.02 on the day for a closing price of $1.46 a gallon ($US per gallon)

Metals Markets:
Gold Market Price (COMEX: CMX) shed $2.40 on the day for a closing price of $740.50 ($US per Troy ounce)
Silver (COMEX: CMX) shed $0.41 on the day for a closing price of $8.79 ($US per Troy ounce)
Platinum (NYMEX: NYM) gained $11.60 on the day for a closing price of $808.80 ($US per Troy ounce)
Copper (COMEX: CMX) gained $0.05 on the day for a closing price of $1.86 ($US per pound)

Livestock and Meat Markets (cents per lb.):
Lean Hogs (Chicago Mercantile Exchange: CME) shed 0.50 on the day for a closing price of 58.05
Pork Bellies (Chicago Mercantile Exchange: CME) gained 0.40 on the day for a closing price of 86.80
Live Cattle (Chicago Mercantile Exchange: CME) gained 0.10 on the day for a closing price of 88.88
Feeder Cattle (Chicago Mercantile Exchange: CME) shed 0.60 on the day for a closing price of 94.10

Other Commodities (cents per bushel):
Corn (Chicago Board of Trade: CBT) gained 5.50 on the day for a closing price of 390.75
Soybeans (Chicago Board of Trade: CBT) shed 9.50 on the day for a closing price of 885.00

Bond Market:
2 year bond shed 2/32 on the day for a closing price of 100 25/32 with a Yield of 1.58, Yield Change 0.03
5 year bond shed 10/32 on the day for a closing price of 102 2/32 with a Yield of 2.67, Yield Change 0.07
10 year bond shed 26/32 on the day for a closing price of 101 25/32 with a Yield of 3.77, Yield Change 0.09
30 year bond shed 9/32 on the day for a closing price of 105 16/32 with a Yield of 4.11, Yield Change 0.01

Thanks for reading
Millennium-Traders.Com
http://www.millennium-traders.com

About the Author

Human-Like Chimp?

If a chimpanzee was born, but it had the intelligence of a person, what would be its fate?

The chimp would be a star with the long arms and raw body strength. He’d be a hit treated like a star!

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The New Laws of the Stock Market Jungle: An Insider’s Guide to Successful Investing in a Changing World $3.20 To survive in the jungle, you must recognize thesubtle nuances that signal danger and opportunity. That’s how it is inthe stock market, too. But the market’s radically changed: followyesterday’s signals and you’ll get eaten alive. The New Laws of theStock Market Jungle systematically explains what’s new — and what itmeans to investors. Michael J. Panzner illuminates the impact ofchanging technol…

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CHOCO-LATTE JUNGLE MIX

Making Money from Stock Advice Online

Just about anywhere you turn on the internet in this day and age there is someone online telling you how to get rich quick.  These are usually inflated claims intended to get you to invest your life savings into a Ponzi scheme or “cash gifting opportunity.” You can make good money online but it will usually be made the same way people have made money for many years before the internet: Investing in The Stock Market.  You can get a lot of excellent stock advice online and if you are willing to learn how to use it well, you can make a lot of money online.

A great deal of the stock advice online you come across is from Stock Brokers whose primary goal is to encourage you to make a high number of trades and not necessarily profitable trades, because they make their money based on how many trades you make. Try to remember it is just as easy to lose money on the stock market as it is to make it. That is why you need to be careful about which pieces of stock advice online you take to heart. Make sure you know and trust the source of the information and analyze what their interest is in sharing this information with you.

The secret to making money from stock advice online is to learn about how to read Stock Charts and analyze market trends for yourself so that you can recognize good advice when you read it.  Don’t assume that someone else is an expert and take their advice blindly. Always do your due diligence and check out every tip you receive.  Look at the stock charts and search for trends.  If you don’t know what that means or how to do it, take the time to find out because that is the knowledge you need to make money from stock advice online.

Making money from stock advice online requires you to find accurate advice, have sufficient information to appreciate what high-quality advice sounds like and then take the good and leave the rest. Next, you need to use that advice and make the right trades. The internet is like a jungle and there are tigers out there ready to devour you if you aren’t protecting yourself. Look for the good websites on the internet where you can purely get informed on how to read stock charts and how to assess stock advice online.  Make certain that you get educated from a site that isn’t there to make money off your trades. You can learn to plot a course through the stock market and make good money from stock advice online if you are willing to do the work.

http://www.powerfulstocktips.com

About the Author

About the Author:Adam W. Porter is a successful investor, and has been Trading Stocks for over a decade. Adam is the owner of PowerfulStockTips.com, where he offers Stock Tips and advice through a free newsletter. Learn more about Adam and sign up for his newsletter by visiting PowerfulStockTips.com today.

I always see this in movies during a stock market scene…. but what is really going on??????

I just seen the movie “What Happens In Vegas” and the girl who is an associate with stocks I suppose. Anyways, its always people yelling and waving a paper and all. It doesnt make sense to me and i have no idea whats going on. Could someone explain. Ive seen this in many other movies, such as Jungle 2 Jungle with Tim Allen having the same job. I have an educated idea about the stock and investments, but the yelling with a paper…. ummmm yeah…???

Sounds like you’re describing “in person” commodities trading. Such high-energy scenes are typical of trading (buying and selling) stuff like crude oil futures, precious metals like gold, and even certain agricultural crops.

This work can be even more intensive and high-stakes than “Day Trading” on the stock market (short-term Stock Trades), which is already quite action-packed. Timing is everythign.

But rather than doing business “virtually,” that is via remote over the Internet, a commodities trading floor is a physical place — such as the New York Mercantile Exchange — where brokers and customers come together and negotiate deals. This is why movies often show this happening — it can be quite intense at times.

Practically anybody can play this commodities trading game (online), but my one editorial comment is that making money via speculation on the future price of something can be very tricky, to say the least, and even so-called experts lose money at it … such speculation is also helping to drive up commodity food and oil prices. Is that a good thing?

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23. Options Markets

Trust in Financial Markets: Tough to Create, Easy to Lose

When asked what is the worst thing that could happen to the economy, German people answer inflation and Americans answer unemployment. This difference is deeply rooted in the experience of the two countries during the turbulent economic times between the two world wars. Germany experienced what is still considered to be one of the worst inflation periods of all times and the U.S. population was traumatized by sky high unemployment. Almost a century later these experiences affect how people think and how societies structure their economic policies – the German authorities place a top priority on controlling inflation whereas the U.S. government is vigilant on unemployment.

That negative experiences affect expectations and behavior was confirmed recently in a research report using data from Bulgaria. Bulgaria is a small country is Southern Europe, one of the Soviet satellites that began market and political reforms in the beginning of the 1990’s. It was, however, too eager to liberalize its financial system and too slow to reform its real economy. Government provided credit to politically important enterprises and corruption contributed to a build-up of bad debts in the banking system. By 1996, the situation was unmanageable and a large fraction of the banking system imploded. Many people lost their life savings.

Twelve years later, in May 2008, a national polling agency conducted a survey investigating whether the experience of 1996 affects how people were thinking about the financial system. The survey asked people whether a banking crisis is likely in the next 1-5 years. The survey also asked whether the respondents or their friends or family had lost money during the crisis of 1996. The objective was to see how experiences reported in that question affects people’s expectations of another crisis. The survey found that only a third of Bulgarians ruled out the possibility of a banking crisis, while a third believed that a crisis is likely or very likely. This is remarkable because Bulgaria has had very successful reforms in its financial system and its economy.

Yet, the survey found that the 1996 crisis still weighed heavily on respondents minds. People who had experienced a large loss in 1996 were almost 50 percent more likely to expect another crisis. Clearly, going through a traumatic financial event has long-term effects on people’s trust in the stability of the financial system. Furthermore, incomplete trust affects behavior. People repeatedly mentioned lack of trust as one of the major reasons for not opening a bank account, taking out credit or Investing in The Stock Market.

Would we see the same effect in the U.S.? How long would it take for people who lost 50 percent of their retirement portfolio and 20-30 percent of the equity in their homes to become enthusiastic investors again? The analysis from Bulgaria suggests that it may take years and possibly decades. One more reason to avoid a meltdown of the financial system. The full report it available as a research paper from the Economics Department of Georgia State University in Atlanta, in the U.S.

About the Author

Stefan Valev writes for a Bulgarian travel website that publishes analysis on the Bulgarian holiday market and advertizes
Apartments and villas in Bulgaria
(or
хотели
to practice your Bulgarian).

Stock Brokerage account on 2 different exchanges?

Do you think it would be an advantage to have 1 stock Trading account in the USA and 1 stock trading account in another country (say another time zone)-asia, eastern europe, Britain? That way when one market closes another one opens. Some of the foreign stock exchange offer good Stocks for very little USD.

I don’t think that it is a good idea. First of all, there is currency risk involved. You can buy many foreign stocks through the US exchanges using ADRs.

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8/14/09 11:30am – forclosures at record high – unemployment number scam – Stock Market Update

Quarterly Window Dressing – A Recurrent Wall Street Scam

“The time has come the walrus said, to talk of many things”: Of corrections–portfolios— and window dressing— of market cycles— wizards— and reality.

Quarterly portfolio window dressing is one of many immortal Jaberwock-like creatures that roam the granite canyons of the Manhattan triangle, sending inappropriate signals to unwary investors and media spokespersons. Many of you, like the unsuspecting young oysters in the Lewis Carroll classic, are responding to the daily news nonsense with fear instead of embracing the new opportunities that are surely right there, cloaked, just beyond your short-term vision field.

Older and wiser mollusks who have experienced the cyclical realities of the markets tend to stick with proven strategies that are based on a solid foundation of QDI (quality, diversification, and income production). They know that corrections lead to rallies, and that rallies always give way to corrections. If only the corrections could elicit patience instead of fear; if only rallies didn’t produce greed and excess. There’s a lot of confusion in a world that considers commodities safer instruments than corporate bonds.

Long lasting investment portfolios are consciously asset allocated between high quality income and equity securities. Each class of securities is then diversified properly to mitigate the risk that the failure of a single security issuer will bring down the entire enterprise. Simply put, a portfolio with 100% invested in the absolute, hands-down, best company on the planet is a high-risk portfolio. There is no cure for cyclical changes in security market values— diversified portfolios thrive on it, in the long run.

The differences between a correction in either a market (equity or debt) or a market sector (financials, drugs, transportation, etc.), and a fall from grace in a specific company are important to appreciate. Corrections are broad downward movements that affect nearly all securities in a specific market. This particular one has impacted prices in both investment markets, while creating rallies in more speculative arenas. Ten years ago, the dot-com bubble began under very similar circumstances. Ten years earlier, it was interest rates— and on, and on. When all prices are down, opportunity is at hand.

There are approximately 450 Investment Grade Value Stocks, and at least half are down significantly from their 52-week highs; fewer than ten per cent were in this condition just over a year ago. But very few companies have thrown in the towel, or even cut their dividends. Closed end income fund prices are still well below the levels they commanded when interest rates were much higher, yet they provide the same cash flow as before the financial crises. The economy and the markets have been through much worse.

Why aren’t the wizards of Wall Street assuaging our nerves by explaining the cyclical nature of the markets and pointing out that similar crises have always preceded the attainment of new all time highs? Right, because the unhappy investor is Wall Street’s best friend. Why can’t politicians address economic problems with capitalist-economic solutions? Fear, and the panic it evokes, creates an easy market for walruses, oyster knives in hand.

Wall Street plays to the operative emotion of the day— greed in the commodities markets and fear in the others. Once per quarter, they trim their holdings in unpopular sectors and add to their positions in areas that have strengthened. Under current conditions in the traditional investment arena, don’t be surprised by larger than usual cash holdings (certainly not “Smart Cash”). Window dressing pushes the prices of your holdings lower, in spite of their continued income production and sustained quality ratings.

How have the wizards managed to re-define the long-term investment process as a quarterly horse race against indices and averages that have no relationship to investor goals, objectives, or portfolio content? Why do these proponents of long-term investment planning and thinking religiously conspire to make short-term decisions that prey upon the emotional weaknesses of their clients? The “art of looking smart” window-dressing exercise accomplishes several things in correcting markets:

The things you own are artificially manipulated lower in price to make you even more uncomfortable with them, while the things you don’t have positions in stabilize or move higher. The glossies from the new fund family your advisor is talking about show no holdings in any of the current areas of weakness. It’s easy to make fearful investors change positions and/or strategies. Sic ‘em boys. Brilliant!

Value investors (those who invest in IGVSI stocks, and income securities with an unbroken cash flow track record) may lapse into fearful thinking as well, and this is where the Working Capital Model comes to the rescue. By focusing on the purpose of the securities you own, their enhanced attractiveness at lower prices becomes obvious. Higher yields at lower market valuations and more shares at lower prices equal faster realized profits as the numbers move higher during the next upward movement of the cycle. That’s just the way it is. A reality you can count on.

Surprisingly few investors have the courage to take advantage of market corrections. Even more surprising is how reluctant the most respected institutional walruses are to suggest buying when prices are low. The instant gratification expectation of investors combined with the infallibility expected of professionals, by both the media and their employers, is the cause. Gurus are expected to know what, when, and how much. Consequently, they prefer to manipulate their portfolios to create an illusion of past brilliance, rather than taking the chance that they may actually be in the right position a few quarters down the road. There is no know in Investing.

The Stock Market yard sale is in full swing— add to your retirement accounts, buy more of IGVSI stocks at bargain prices, increase your dependable income and increase current yields at the same time. Apply patience, and vote for economic solutions to economic problems.

Perge’

About the Author

Steve Selengut
Sanco Services
Kiawa Golf Investment Seminars
Author: “The Brainwashing of the American Investor: The Book that Wall Street Does Not Want YOU to Read” and “A Millionaire’s Secret Investment Strategy“.

did you know that the bush economy numbers are misleading, the average american is making less?

the price of goods have gone up but not salaries, this is a investors economy. the only ones getting richer are investors on wall street and people who play the stock market as well as corporations.

That’s why 62% of Americans aren’t confident in the economy. The administration will point to numbers that look pretty, but they don’t effect the middle and working classes. It’s only getting better for the richest Americans. The rest of America is stuck in a rut.

Also note: this recovery has produced the fewest jobs of any other recovery since WWII. The economy ebbs and flows, sure, but if the numbers are rising, but job creation remains stagnant (it matches population growth right now, so while it’s growing, it’s net growth over population growth is basically zero) that means it’s only the top tier that are enjoying the benefits of the economic recovery.

Wall Street trader’s NYSE Trading Floor Tour

A First Foray into The Stock Market

It all began 3 years or so ago when my insurance and finance company offered me 16 free trades with their brokerage.
It sounded like fun, although I knew absolutely nothing about the stock market, didn’t even really know what a stock market was. So I took the bait, sent them $500, and I was a “trader”. And I made sure everyone knew it, too. I researched companies to death, requested info packages in the mail, called public relation departments, all to purchase 5 or 10 shares of their stock. Great fun. Then I began reading books about investors. Warren Buffet, Peter Lynch ect. ect. and I was hooked. The 16 trades lasted me about 2 months and when it was over, I was almost $100 richer. Sweet. Just playing around, easy money! So they write me an e-mail telling me my free trades are up and from now and forward, that will be $20 a trade please. I’m not a genius mind you, but even that math didn’t add up to me. That next $100 will cost me $320 leaving me with a $220 deficit. Nope, I’ll have none of that. Way to smart to fall for their scheme. Now I’m looking around the Internet about Stocks and trading. Good God, there is a whole universe out there. A whole nother world. Brokers and blogs and services and…..well, a lot of stuff. And it all looks so FUN!!!!!! Then, and then I see the “free 2 hour stock market class in your city”. Well, if it’s free, what have I got to lose?

I guess the proper word, the one they used anyway, was seminar. The “seminar” was hosted at the best hotel in town, here that’s the Hilton, and was actually very professionally done.

I arrived, not knowing what to expect, but absolutely knowing what I wanted. Them to teach me, in two hours mind you, how I could get rich fast and easy. And to my surprise, they did!! Well, almost. I had to come back for a weekend course, and it was there that I was to be enlightened on how easily I could make tons of money, just like all these guys had, by just clicking the mouse when the arrows turned green.

I was dizzy, intoxicated by visions of wealth. Quit my IBD subscription (I didn’t), I won’t need it anymore, they told me. Hell, I was thinking, I can even quit my job.

But why then….isn’t everyone doing it? How exactly did it all work? Remember “if it sounds to good to be true….”. Come back for a whole two day seminar, and we’ll show ya. By the end of that two, really two and a half days, I had so much time invested, I may as well give them the $2000 they asked for to get me to subscribe to the web site. So I did. They showed me a whole lot of stuff I already knew from all the books I’d read. So i gave them another five, to teach me about options. They gave me a book, (an online book, and let me watch some guys Trade Stocks live for a month) that explained what an option was. But…for another $5000 I could learn how to use option strategies. But I’d had enough. Fool me once (fool that I am), fool me twice, but three times. Not you guys, I’ll go somewhere else for that. And I did. (To be fair, the website this particular company offered was actually a very useful and valuable tool. I used it for 2 years and once I figured out that the green arrows weren’t the fountain of wealth, I made some use of it. Just not $7000 worth)

I went to services, guys that told me what to buy, when to, different methods, ect. ect. All to no avail. I just couldn’t make any money. I didn’t really lose money, except the money I spent on services, but stayed pretty even in the markets for a year or so. The people at the services were making money, but not me. Why, Why, Why.

What finally got me off the “pay someone else to do the trading for me” train was when I read about Dr. Alexander Elder and then read his book, Trading for a living. Apart from all the other most useful pieces of information, there a section about the harm you can do yourself by blindly following your “gurus”, and getting off your….and learning to do the work yourself. And I did. And it worked.

There are books about strategies, books about candlesticks, books about Wall Street and books about anything and everything to do with the stock market. There are good books, useful books, worthless books, just all kinds of books. I read them all. Well, not literally, mostly because they begin to repeat themselves and there are so many of them. Seems if you can’t make Money Trading, you can always write a book about trading. No, that’s not fair, I take it back.
Anyway, I read books and developed a sort of style over some months, an evolving style, if you will, but at least I was trying it on my own. The funniest thing happened after that, I began to win more money than I was losing. Not a lot, but more.

By now I’m well into my second year of being in the market, (notice I didn’t say trading as I was mostly giving) I’ve signed up with a discount broker with really cheap trades and I have discovered options. Yes, options. Sure I read about ‘em and heard about ‘em but had yet to “do it” with them. I had to get it OK’d through my broker and he was willing. Ask, bid, last, open interest bla bla bla. I knew you bought it at the ask price and sold it at the bid price. The first option I bought was one contract of AMX at the money. The very next day was a big day up for the stock, and the option made $100. Did you catch that…One Hundred Dollars on one contract in one day!! Holy crap. My heart was beating so fast, I couldn’t push the button on my computer fast enough. $100 in one day. Of course it continued up, up, up directly after that, but no matter. A hundred bucks. Seriously, that was how I felt. Options were the way to go. Granted, I learned my lesson shortly after that and began to study options and try and learn the proper way to use them. And am still learning today.

When I discovered blogs, it all changed for me. Real people doing real work, rather than paid professionals working 8s. And what a wealth of information and training. Of course, the easy way would be just to match trades, or be an Internet “leech”, as it is called, but I learned my lesson about that with all those pay for trades services. You know the ones. They give you a thousand trades to make, which you obviously can’t afford, and when you complain that your losing, they tell you that you must follow them exactly. All the trades. Smooth.

Instead, I listened to their methods (the bloggers), their madness, the Tech Traders and fundamentalists. Listened and read and learned. Blogs. There are loads of them to sift thru. Some, quite a few actually, that are genuine and helpful. Mentors. Yes, mentors. I remember the first. I just sort of stumbled across it and was fascinated. This guy was teaching me more in one night (by reading his site) than all the money I had previously put out. I mean shit about options I had never heard of, VIX(CBOE VOLATILITY INDEX), charting, rules, discipline….I could go on and on and on. It was incredible, the motherlode. I, as well as all of us amateurs out here lurking about are, or should be, eternally grateful.

I started to put all of this advice and learning to use. Follow your rules, be disciplined, set stops and targets, plan your trades ect. ect. And I finally started to make some money. And my account was growing. Whoooo hooooo!!

Boy was I having fun….while it lasted…..

Making money in the stock market, once I started, proved hard to hold onto. I had signed up with a premium research company. My account was growing and against my better judgment, actually I struggled with it at first, I began to with draw cash. It started with greed, of course. I figured I could take out a few hundred, and make it up. Which I did. Right away. Cool. So the next time I took out a little more. Then a little more. Now it was a habit. And a bad one. Taking money out periodically, just to have cash. I took a trip to Sweden, bought an engagement ring for my wife, eating out all the time, was really living it up, and beyond my means, but with real money I had earned. Problem was, my account quit growing. I would get to a number, and withdraw. Always keeping my account stocked and never going below a certain amount. I had learned to make money finally.

I remember when I first started to make some money trading. I had $2000, or there about, when I stopped and took a deep breath for a couple weeks. It was a struggle getting there, and I was terrified of losing it. I read the blogs and paper traded and learned something about forex too. When I came back to live trading, it was all there. I started making good, really good trades, and quite a few. The service I signed up with was giving me great ideas that paid off. Just in small numbers mind you, but real money I was banking in my account. Granted we were right in the middle of an unbelievably strong bull market, but still, I was trading up and down, to the short side, the long side. Cutting my losses early, winners were running, reading news religiously. Remember please, it wasn’t tons of cash like the real traders, but a hundred today, 300 tomorrow lose 70 the next day, and so on.

So now I’m trading, and making money. Now what?
Last year, late in the summer, when it started to go bad, I decided to go to cash with what money I had in the market. It wasn’t easy, cause sometimes the urge to trade was just so strong. I had built my account up a bit, broken lots of bad habits, and finally realized I wasn’t nearly as smart as I thought I was. Here I was, clipping along, feeling pretty good, “banking some coin” and really digging this trading thing, when it started to get a little complicated. It wasn’t quite as easy as yesterday. I started to lose some when I should have winning. Started buying more puts than calls, and it wasn’t always so obvious which way to go.

That’s when I learned about direction and the market has a mind of it’s own. Sometimes it’s up, sometimes it’s down. No one really ever knows for sure which way it will go. Sure, some more experienced traders can make very good educated guesses drawn from quality technical analysis and fundamentals of the economy at any given moment, but not even then can they be 100% positive. So I continue to learn every day, extract what I can from the market and watch my account grow.

And that’s it. My beginning. It’s certainly not an easy endeavor as I had first imagined, but takes work and dedication and time, regardless of all the stuff you’ll read to the contrary. If you read this far, all I can hope is that you take the lessons I learned and fore go the hustlers and scam artists and get on with your studies, then trading and start making money. Remember to be wary of the Gurus and easy money promises. There’s no such thing.

Eventually you’ll want to sign up with a premium charting and research company. There are a ton of them out there. I’ve been through a lot and have landed on and stuck with one that is owned by an ex-floor trader and money manager. The calls and screens they run are generally right on. The key is to find one with lots of services and that will answer your questions fast and honestly. Fortunately for myself, I truly believe I have found that key ingredient for my trading career.

Remember, take your time, learn all you can, use all you learn and be successful!

You can find free video seminars here at my blog as well as links to a place where a Quality education can be obtained through lessons taught be market masters in to live audiences. Links to other quality blogs run by really good experienced traders that have careers in money management, floor trading , running hedgefunds ect. can also be found. My posts consist of ways to be educated without breaking yourself, sometimes trades I have made, some political insights that may effect the markets or economy and just my general opinions.

About the Author

Trading stocks, forex and futures. Selling real estate in the great state of Kansas.

Do you think all the left will wake up now?

Seems like every time this Obama opens his mouth about another spending plan Wall Street goes lower, lower,and lower. People with skin in the game do not believe this guy or have faith in his spending.
Will the left admit their mistake now or will the stock market have to keep going, going going down until gone before they are wiling to wake up to realize just how awful his decision making is , and how bad the deception in his administration is?

Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures expiring in March added 1.7 percent to 774.3 as of 9:14 a.m. in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 1.4 percent to 7,331 and Nasdaq-100 Index futures increased 1.3 percent to 1,169.25.

Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. gained more than 4 percent. Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. advanced as oil climbed to a one-month high.

looks like it’s gaining. where have you been?