South Wyoming's Best Uranium Discovery?

In yesterdays conversation with Dr. Robert Rich, we determined he had the credentials and industry knowledge to provide Yellowcake Mining (YCKM) with credibility in the uranium space, But, what about the geology? Many juniors have skated onto the radar by using a big name to attract investors. Too often, the propertys geology is lacking the factors which would lead to actual uranium mining. Often, the industry-celebrity name is barely familiar with the companys property.

To our surprise, Dr. Rich was intimately familiar with Yellowcake Minings Juniper Ridge property in southern Wyoming. I had looked at Juniper Ridge in the late 1970s and early 1980s when it was owned by Urangesellschaft (UG), a German company, he told us. At the time there were still fresh open cuts from previous open pit mining there. There was a bit of uranium produced during the last market cycle of uranium, but I was impressed with the potential for it to become a much bigger operation. And then I didnt hear anything about it for over twenty years.

Juniper Ridge Bigger Than We Thought

He explained some of the production costs and geology, describing Juniper Ridge. I think there was a feasibility study that gave favorable results when the market was around $40/pound, Dr. Rich said. Its mineralization is in pods. When I was there before, it looked like I was in a giant prairie dog village.

What kind of mining would take place at Juniper Ridge, then? I think thats one of the reasons why people hope it will be ISR-amenable, Rich answered. Maybe you put a well field on each of the pods and get out what you can at a low production and low processing cost. Because of the propertys history, Dr. Rich wouldnt rule out conventional mining. We have 2,000 drill holes which need to be re-analyzed.

So we spoke with David Frank, the Strathmore Minerals geologist who has been analyzing about one-half of those drill holes on behalf of joint-venture partner Yellowcake Mining. Were getting above average, reasonably good grades, Frank told us. Im not disappointed. Frank scrolled through data during our telephone interview, citing some of the exceptional holes: 0.2, 0.3 and 0.5.

Some are in the percents, Strathmore Minerals (STHJF) president David Miller told us. According to the industry, Juniper Ridge was the best discovery made in southern Wyoming. It was the only one with significant uranium mineralization in the Browns Park Formation. The formation encompasses northeastern Utah, northwestern Colorado, and south-central Wyoming. It is a slightly younger formation than the Wind River or Wasatch formations, said Miller, who was recently announced as director of Yellowcake Mining. This is another tertiary age sandstone formation in Wyoming which contains substantial uranium mineralization.

Miller rated this formation third in the state. He explained the Wind Rivers formation, with Gas Hills and Shirley Basin, was Wyomings most prolific uranium producer, followed by the Wasatch formation, which includes Powder River and the Red Desert.

Historically, Juniper Ridge was the site of 12 small open pit mines. UG nearly brought the property into production in the early 1980s. There were pit designs and it was reportedly permitted. Machinery was ready to break ground. UG had given the project the green light, when the bottom fell out of the uranium market. Later, the Italian company, AGIP bought, hoping for a turnaround in the uranium price. The uranium price drought lasted longer than expected, and it passed through to other hands.

As the uranium price appeared to be heading higher, Strathmore Minerals acquired the property. In mid March, Yellowcake Mining optioned an 80-percent interest in the property, which it will earn by spending $8 million over a five-year period to develop Juniper Ridge. As part of the transaction, Yellowcake issued nine million shares to Strathmore.

Strathmore corporate secretary Bob Hemmerling told us, This is part of our corporate strategy to monetize our non-core assets so that we can advance our flagship projects. Others we spoke with confirmed this was likely to become an economic uranium mining operation.

We are too early days, but I would feel pretty confident in a $60 to $70 (uranium price) market of not having any problem bringing it on-line and making money, Dr. Rich informed us. I think it has potential to become a medium-size producer maybe a couple million pounds a year. The mineralization is not all that deep.

Juniper Ridge is a near surface deposit with uranium mineralization starting at the surface and running a few hundred feet to depth. The deposit was discovered by picking up surface rocks with a Geiger counter, said David Frank. It might be mined by a combination of open pit for the shallow mineralization and ISR for uranium at depth. Possibly by heap leaching piles of ore, Rich said. Or if you went underground, you could heap leach and inflate like heap leaching in place. This was done once at New Lake Mines in Canadas Elliot Lake region.

Miller pointed out, We expect to drill the property, for permitting purposes, in 2007. It was under development to become an open-pit mine, before it was put on stand by by UG. Data compilation is ongoing to analyze more than 2,000 holes previously drilled.

Near-Term Uranium Production in Wyomings Gas Hills

Its a real action property, Strathmores John DeJoia told us from the companys Santa Fe, New Mexico permitting office. Developing it will bring a lot of new applications to the ISR (in situ recovery) uranium industry. DeJoia is intimately familiar with the prospects at Sky because he had evaluated the propertys potential during the last uranium cycle. Its a fairly straightforward ISR mining project, DeJoia added. Sky will be easy drilling because of the formation.

Located in Fremont County near Lander and Riverton, Wyoming (near Strathmores U.S. headquarters), the Sky property is a relatively small uranium deposit about one million pounds U3O8. Why bother with something this small? Its an ideal ISR property to introduce new technologies, DeJoia said. Uranium mined at Sky would be processed through a small, inexpensive plant. It would be modular and portable with new technologies, he added. DeJoia explained this could become a new development for existing remote ion exchange technology.

This may signal a bigger property development. I think it will be developed in conjunction with other properties in the area, DeJoia speculated. An April 10th news release announced it would be the first of Strathmores properties to begin data collection for permitting purposes. Strathmore has several other Wyoming projects listed on the companys website.

At first we thought the Sky property was a throwaway, like other properties tossed like doggie biscuits by the higher market cap uranium juniors to barking new uranium junior entrants. We talked permeability with David Miller about Sky. The Sky property has about eight-fold the permeability of Christensen Ranch, Miller confided. He would know, because he was chief geologist at this ISR uranium operation for four years. Christensen Ranch had 300 millidarcy; Sky has 2500 millidarcy, Miller said.

Millidarcy is used to measure the permeability of a uranium roll front deposit. The higher the darcy (1.0 or greater shows good promise), the more permeable the deposit. This unit of measurement is widely used in petroleum engineering and geology. We discussed the importance of permeability in our basic ISR series.

This may explain why both companies are excited by joint developments in Wyoming. Geologically, both Strathmore Minerals property assets have greater prospectivity than we first thought. These present the significant opportunity Dr. Robert Rich explained to us in Part One of this series.

And what about the hundreds of pesky juniors which have sprung up to rape the uninformed investor? I think that probably half the juniors are just opportunistic, Dr. Rich told us. Thats the nature of entrepreneurial activitylooking for the next horse to ride, like the pony express. Rich further explained, You wear out one, you get on the other. I think there are so many companies that probably had gold in their name prior to them having uranium in their name. When the next thing comes along, whether its nickel or whatever, theyll change the company name and do something different.

COPYRIGHT 2007 by StockInterview, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

James Finch contributes to StockInterview.com and other publications. His focus on the uranium mining and nuclear fuel sector resulted in the widely popular Investing in the Great Uranium Bull Market, which is now available on http://www.stockinterview.com and on http://www.amazon.com

Referral Strategies - Part 3

Referral Rewards Lets go through a list of rewards you could give people for referring you business. (Please read the Special Report on Automatic Success to understand the psychology behind this its available in your Immortal Members Area under Sales)

There are two ways to reward. 1. For referrals whether you sell them or not 2. For referrals where you make the sale

I encourage you to have systems for both. And like much of whats on the list below, you need to know your numbers to successfully use some of these methods I am about to share.

If you want to make each referral gift stay on the profitable side, you need to know

• Cost per lead
• Cost per appointment (if you have this in your sales process)
• Cost per sale

The Marketing Analysis Calculator spreadsheet I prepared for you in the Software > Free Software of your Immortals Membership area is an easy way to begin tracking this information if you dont know it. Specific Rewards To go to a World Class level, you need to know your customers and keep notes on what your customers like and dislike. If you have good referral sources, you want to start rewarding them with things they really like personally. Not some generic across the board gift that any Tom, Dick or Harry is going to be given.

Your top referral sources deserve special treatment. Once you see a pattern of giving from someone, you may phone their secretary or business partner to find out a couple of things like

You start by saying,

Hi Mary, I wanted your help on something. John has been referring quite a bit of business to us and we wanted to do something special to thank him. Can you tell me if there is anything he particularly loves to do in his spare time?"

This will lead on to questions like -

What does John do on weekends?

What hobbies does he have?

What Team does he follow in sport?

Does he have any goals in life you could share with me?

Does he have a favorite movie, book or something else?

Then you ask them to keep your call a secret so you can surprise him. You organize your gift and send it through BAM! Now that has serious Wow Factor.

So lets go through a list of rewards you can put on your list. You may decide to arrange 5-10 rewards for varying amounts of sales generated. For example, $100 sales you give away X gifts. For $250 sales, you give Y Gifts, $500 plus you give Z gifts you get the idea.

Rewards (combine many on the list to create ultimate thoughtful gifts)

I find the key is to give people lifestyle enhancing gifts money is a boring cop-out! Money trading for referral strategies falls into a Joint Venture strategy under my definition.

Referral Rewards include things like -

Limo ride

Dinner for 2

Movie tickets

Live Show

Holiday

Flights

Weekend Away

Harley Ride

Gift Vouchers to Favorite Store

Favorite Alcoholic Beverage

Bottle of Wine (standard)

Tickets to Sporting Event

Hot Air Balloon Ride

Book/s

DVDs

CDs music

CDs area of interest (i.e. self-help etc)

Send them a Special Report (from my Immortals Site like this one cheers!)

Massage voucher

Subscription to a magazine

Hire them a dream car for a day (Ferrari etc)

Flowers to turn up at their house / office

Organize a caterer to turn up at their house and cook a meal for them

Chocolates

Bath and Relaxation Products

I am sure this list will stimulate some ideas for you time to make your own list or add to this one. The more you do this and get to know your customers, the easier this is.

Now to my favourite... and WHY?

I think one of the best referral gifts you can give is a magazine subscription.

Why?

#1 - Because it is low cost.

#2 - It is something physical that gets sent to them and will act as a surprise every time it hits the letterbox.

#3 - You can custom choose the magazine based on what they have a passion or interest in - this is ultimate personalization.

"It's the thought that counts"

#4 - The monthly reminder keeps you top of mind for future referral generation.

#5 - It is systemized for you by the company that fulfills the orders - you only need to order it once - how easy is that?

#6 - The entire cost of annual subscription can be absorbed in the first sale you make (do your numbers)

#7 - They get 12 gifts for the one referral - over delivering at its best!

#8 - This gift naturally engages the Law of Reciprocity. If they fail to send more referrals, then every month they get a reminder when that magazine hits their desk. Before long, the natural Law of Reciprocity kicks in and they make an effort to send more people to you.

The system that you initiated and gets fulfilled by someone else creates a system of ongoing referrals - "Ultimate Leverage" Need I say more?

In Part 4, I will reveal the critical step - this is where most businesses fail to maximize their referral systems.

Until then...

Think BIG! Act BOLD! Have FUN!

Scott Groves is the Author of 6 Books, and Founder of "Immortal Entrepreneurs". His work has been endorsed by names such as Mark Victor Hansen, John Kanary, PhD's and CEO's worldwide. You can get more business growth strategies in Scott's Immortal Entrepreneur Members Area by visiting http://www.scottgroves.com

Foreign Exchange Rate - Foreign Currency Exchange - Foreign Exchange Student

Several scenarios make a great decline of currency value like political uncertainties, unemployment that leads to higher inflation, other relevant issues that can hamper commerce and business from functioning well, and other macro-economic situations. This simply means you make decisions to buy or sell but dont put any real money down. The official currency of the European Union (EU), the Euro, was launched in 1999 with coins and banknotes issued in 2002.

This World recession effectively killed any growth in FX speculation as disposable income was at a premium. When people or companies hold foreign assets, there is an extra source of possible gain or loss, over and above the rate of interest or rate of profit earned by the asset itself.

If Denars are rare - their price will remain high in DM terms, i.e. But a strong currency (the Denar, in this case) is not always a positive thing. This World recession effectively killed any growth in FX speculation as disposable income was at a premium. Euro is a floating exchange rate, therefore market demand and supply controls the value of the currency.

Placing a foreign exchange hedge can help to manage this foreign exchange rate risk. At the end of WWI there was a brief period of massive currency speculation.

Stock trading is similar to owning part of a company or organization. It is often wise for the beginner to dabble in stocks trading before looking at Forex trading. If its people have the most employment, there are more needs for commodities and supplies that businesses are revolving as well as it use of money. All other currencies were pegged to the dollar at a certain rate.

Investors used to invest domestically mainly, but with the Euro introduction more investors are now attracted to euro areas. The exchange rate refers to the value of the US dollar against the values of currencies of other countries. It is an excellent way to get your feet wet without a whole lot of risk. If the US INFLATION rate is HIGHER, investors are LESS likely to prefer the US -even with higher interest rates- because of the expectation that the value of the dollar will be ERODED by inflation.

This has benefited the poorer member states which had weaker currencies previously for example Portugal, before the euro the Portuguese escudo was not that popular outside its own country or a particularly strong currency but now since Portugal is part of the EU its markets are much more attractive to other EU and non EU countries. Their lenders will also be afraid to lend them money, because these lenders cannot be sure that the borrowers will have the necessary additional Denars to pay back the credits in case of such a devaluation. If Forex exchange rate in our terms is equal to 100 yen to the dollar, the inverse would be $0,01 (one cent) per yen. One important way of encouraging people (and firms are made of people) to do things - is to allay their fears.

Learn more about Foreign Exchange Rate Foreign Currency Exchange Foreign Exchange Student

Utilities Disagree Over Spot Uranium Price

According to Fridays Nuclear Market Review (NMR), two off-market transactions were reported this past week for more than 500 thousand pounds U3O8 equivalent. NMR editor Treva Klingbiel wrote, Both transactions were in negotiations prior to the steep price rise last week and reflect prices below the currently published levels. NMR did not provide exact details of the sales price(s). The weekly spot uranium price indicator remained unchanged at US$113/pound.

No transactions took place in the long-term market. No new demand emerged. Uranium transaction volume for 2007 year-to-date remains the third lowest for the past decade. Only transaction volumes in 1997 and 2001 were lower at this point of the annual cycle.

NMR also reported on the World Nuclear Fuel Cycle conference which took place this past week in Budapest, Hungary. MITs Center for International Studies senior researcher Thomas Neff discussed whether it was still possible to substitute enrichment for uranium. Neff concluded, Given existing prices there is not sufficient enrichment capacity currently available for utilities to truly optimize the tradeoff between enrichment and uranium. In recent presentations in Geneva and Zurich, Neff expressed concern about the uranium mining and enrichment industries providing sufficient nuclear fuel to utilities to meet the demands of the ongoing nuclear renaissance.

Others expressed similar concerns. Synatoms Fuel Supply manager Gerard Pauluis told conference attendees, As the market matures, we will experience uncontrollable price spikes. Urenco senior executive Maurice Lenders told the conference, Suppliers and customers must be open about what they have and what they need so that supply will be available to meet demand. Urenco supplies enriched uranium to the market. The European consortium is currently constructing the first new U.S. enrichment facility in New Mexico.

Uranium Mining Stocks Analysis

Matthew Smith of TheInvestar news service reported, I think that a correction may be underway in the uranium sector right now as the index tried and failed two times to break through the 325 level and hold. Smith explained, A correction is due, and it seems that many of the stocks with Australian exposure may at this time be overbought on the speculation of the vote on the countrys Three Mines Policy.

We asked about Peter Farmers comments on the day before the company announced Denison Mines would be trading on the American Stock Exchange. Smith speculated, I believe they indicate he is simply trying to talk down prices. Smith pointed out the Denison chief executive was referring to properties in the early development stage.

Smith added that oil executives have been making these statements since the uranium price was in the $15/pound range all the way up. Earlier this week, Exelon Corps Jim Malone had voiced similar concerns the uranium price was unsustainable in a guest commentary for Fuel Cycle Week magazine. Malone also wondered in his editorial whether speculators were intentionally driving the uranium price higher to bolster the value of uranium mining stocks. Both appear to question the speculative value of the hundreds of uranium juniors which have jumped on the bandwagon over the past year. These sentiments agree with the conclusion of Yellowcake Mining director Dr. Robert Rich we found in a previously published interview.

Smith explained, It is simply the conservative nature of the executives not to let expectations get out of hand. These are sentiments expressed over the past few months by Uranium Ones Neal Froneman and Paladin Resources John Borshoff. As a market watcher, but not a registered investment advisor, Smith counseled, When markets begin to look as though they may be overbought, it is best to go to those companies with good valuations.

COPYRIGHT 2007 by StockInterview, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Julie Ickes and James Finch co-authored this article. James Finch contributes to StockInterview.com and other publications. His focus on the uranium mining and nuclear fuel sector resulted in the widely popular Investing in the Great Uranium Bull Market, which is now available on http://www.stockinterview.com and on http://www.amazon.com

Protect Your Important Computer Data With Offsite Backup Services

If you own a business that frequently uses computers to store data, then you probably realize the importance of having a dependable online file backup system. Without sufficient methods of data storage, your files are vulnerable and can easily be erased by power failure, employee mishaps, hackers, natural disasters, or an isolated computer crash.

One solution is to backup your own data using methods such as buying an additional hard drive for backup, or using network or FTP backup. These have advantages and disadvantages, but can be viable solutions if you have the time and capability to do your own offsite data storage.

If you don't have time to do your own backup, however, there are online companies today that offer services to protect your data for you. These are called offsite backup services. Offsite backup services provide the tools and space to store your important business or personal data daily so you can worry about other vital functions of your business.

How Online Backup Services Work

Online backup services offer an easy solution for online file backup at a low cost. The company offering the services will usually charge a monthly fee based on the amount of data storage space you'll need and how often you'll need to transfer data to their system. They will provide a special server and use protocols of their own to transfer and encrypt (or secure) your data.

Why are Offsite Backup Services Safer than Other Forms of Backup?

Offsite backup services are not foolproof, but they do provide a safe way to store your important data. One reason is the company can specialize and keep up-to-date with the latest technologies to keep your data safe from hackers and computer bugs. As a busy business owner, you probably will not have time to worry with this and you might not have the funds to hire a full-time backup specialist.

Another reason it's safer than using your own backup system is your data will be stored in a completely different location. You will have the information on your own system as well as another backup system far away. If and when a computer crash or some other event causes you to lose your data, you will have it stored in a different location to retrieve when you need it.

Choose Offsite Backup Services Carefully

When choosing offsite backup services, be sure the company is dependable and trustworthy. Your stored data should never be compromised for any reason. The company should offer a strict confidentiality standard and enforce it. You can check with the Better Business Bureau (online or off-line) to see if the company has any complaints against it.

Also, be sure the company is dependable. Storing your data using online backup services does you no good if you are unable to access or retrieve your data when you need it. Ask for referral names of people that have used the service before. Test the company with a small amount of data first to see how they operate. Being cautious at the start might save you many headaches for the future.

Using an online file backup solution can save you time and money. You can enjoy freedom from backup nightmares while allowing data backup experts to do the work for you.

Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web. Learn more about Offsite Backup Services Explained or Majon's Business and Entrepreneurs directory

Forex Trading - What Moves Prices and How Can You Take Advantage?

If you want to take advantage of currency price movements and predict where prices might go you need to know what moves prices and why they occur.

This may sound obvious but many traders simply dont know and lose.

Lets find out exactly what moves prices and why and how you can take advantage.

Understand the following equation

Supply and Demand Fundamentals + Trader Psychology = Price movement

Prices are not simply a tug of war between supply and demand. As humans we put a value on the market and this is the unpredictable part of the equation.

When considering trader psychology keep in mind that it is humans that determine the price of anything, based upon how they see the facts.

Why is this important?

Its important because its humans that drive prices, with the emotions of greed and fear to the fore. It is the human element that you need to consider when trading the markets.

So how do you do it?

The obvious answer in FOREX trading is to use a system based upon technical analysis, simply follow charts and let them tell you which way prices will go.

As with todays fundamentals are instantly discounted in the price the news and data wont help you understanding trader psychology will.

Technical analysis acts as a way of studying the fundamentals, as it assumes that all the fundamentals are discounted by the market and will show up instantly in price action.

Charts do something much more - they show up the long term repetitiveness of human nature.

Unpredictable in the short term, but over the longer term certain reliable chart patterns can be spotted that are a reflection of repetitive human psychology.

Now consider this:

Each trillions of dollars are traded in the markets, by numerous participants and while in the short term these participants can be unpredictable, in the longer term human nature is constant and chart patterns repeat.

How to trade

When trading dont fall for the day trading story.

All short term moves are random and you can prove this by asking any day trader for a long term track record of REAL profits made in trading.

Ask for one and you wont get one.

Many new traders try and trade short term but as you can see above its why they lose.

You need to trade longer term and we would suggest using the weekly chart to spot the long term trend ( currency trends tend to last for months or even years) and then time your entry on the daily chart.

If you understand what we have just discussed you will see that a long term technical approach to trading is the best way to make long term profits from Forex trading.

MORE FREE BETTER TRADING INFO

On all aspects of becoming a profitable trader including the best systems articles and features and an exclusive Gann Trading Course visit our website at http://www.net-planet.org/index.html

Seven Deadly Trading Mistakes - Part Four

Right - we've looked at strategies and planning, so now we're ready to trade right? Wrong! At least, we're not ready to trade live.

Mistake Number Four - Not Testing

Trading is a great business, it offers potential levels of income and freedom that most people can only dream of. So it's quite natural that having got the groundwork out of the way, the novice trader is eager to get clicking those buy and sell buttons and see the profits roll in. But hang on - the preparation isn't over yet!

Imagine for a moment that you decided you wanted to become an airliner pilot. You spent time and effort researching the type of aircraft you were going to pilot, you read some books on how to fly, and one day you found yourself in the cockpit at the end of the runway. Clearly, without having actually taken some time to learn how to fly this machine full of passengers, trying to take off would be a disaster! So why is it so many traders believe they can read a book about trading and then leap into the market without first getting some experience?

If you were going for the pilots job, you'd take a training programme which would undoubtedly see you getting some no-risk experience in a flight simulator. This would give you the opportunity to make all of your early mistakes without crashing a few seriously expensive airplanes in the process.

As traders, we are very fortunate in that we, like airline pilots, can practise and hone our skills in a risk-free environment. Indeed we have the added benefit that we can simulate our activity with high degrees of realism at little or no financial cost at all.

I am of course talking about "paper trading". In the most basic sense of the term, paper trading means that we follow our trading plan exactly as if we were going to put real money into the market, but at the point where we would actually buy or sell, we simply make a note of the current price instead of opening a live trade. We would continue to manage the trade exactly as if we had real money in the market, and would exit accordingly, again writing down the exit price.

Going a step further from pen and paper, today's internet-generation trader can take advantage of software simulators like TSim+, which imitate a live trading platform. These programs have the advantage of making the paper trading experience much more realistic; they also cannot be cheated in the same way as a note on a piece of paper, that is to say we cannot conveniently decide to erase a trade we later decide was a mistake!

There are some who believe that paper trading is not worthwhile as it can never reproduce the emotional stresses that are involved in live trading. Whilst that is true to a certain extent, I would argue that if you are not sufficiently proficient at executing your trading plan in a simulator, why would you be able to do so with real money?

Paper trading gives us a great opportunity to put into practise what we have learnt, test new strategies, and tune our skills with no risk. Once a trader can consistently show a profit on a simulator, they are ready to take the next step - live trading. Again, this is not something to be rushed, and again, like airline pilots we can work our way up to this.

Just as the pilot is probably not going to make his first flight in a jumbo jet, neither do we as traders need to take a full-size trade when we start for real. If trading equities (shares), we can buy and sell very small amounts at almost negligible cost. If trading futures, we can usually start with "mini" contracts which are valued at a fraction of the price of a full size version. Whilst this limits our profit potential as we take our first steps in the live market, it very importantly also limits our potential losses.

With the huge array of software tools available to us, along with discount brokers offering cheap trading instruments, there is no need for any trader to get seriously burned on their first outing into the market.

Action: We must commit to testing and practising our trading in a risk-free environment before putting our capital into the live market. Only when we can show consistent profit on a simulator should we move on to trading real money, and then only in small doses.

About The Author
Harvey Walsh is both a trader and trading coach. He can be contacted via his website, where you can also read more about his day trading book - http://www.day-trading-freedom.com day-trading-freedom.com

Does Forex Make Money?

With a daily turnover estimated at around $1.8 trillion the answer to the question "Does the Forex make money?" is pretty obvious.

The bigger question is: "For whom?"

With the opportunity for anybody and everybody with a computer and an internet connection to participate in the Forex to make money in recent years, thousands of individuals have had some exposure to the challenges of Forex trading.

Is The Forex A Fool's Game?

According to some estimates, the vast majority, perhaps as high as 95%, lose money.

Is it a fool's game, just an elusive dream to trade the Forex to make money to try and achieve financial security?

In view of the high failure rate, it is prudent for anyone who is contemplating entering Forex trading to do their homework first. While the majority fail to make consistent profits from the Forex, a minority do, and some of them make huge profits from the Forex.

The Realistic Mindset

What is the key? A realistic mindset when approaching the Forex, a commitment to learn and get a proper education, and then, application of the knowledge learned in a disciplined way backed up by perseverance!

For an individual who has already had experience trading stocks, or futures, the learning curve may only involve a few months when switching to the foreign exchange market.

For the complete novice the learning period will probably run into years, anywhere from 1 to 3 years according to some estimates.

During this time the novice will have to first get acquainted with the workings of the Forex, learning the terminology, and working with a demo account on a trading platform supplied by an online broker.

Months will need to be spent sitting in front of a computer screen studying candlestick charts, getting acquainted with specific patterns, learning to recognize high probability setups. There is no shortcut for this part of the educational process if you want the Forex to make money for you.

The Most Critical Factor

Then comes the most critical part of all: developing the mental discipline and emotional control necessary for safe trading.

The Forex can be a minefield for anyone who is not in control of their emotions. For a person who has a gambling instinct, the Forex will suck their account dry in a very short time. The Forex is not a game of chance.

Successful trades are the product of careful market analysis, an understanding of how the market moves acquired from months and years of experience, and a strict control of equity management.

Even with all that input, the successful trader will still regularly lose trades. As long as there are a greater number of trades that are successful, the Forex will make money for you.

Make An Informed Decision

If all this sounds overwhelming and a little foreboding, you are getting the picture of what is involved once you start down the road as a Forex trader.

On the other hand, this is a job that can be done from home, with as many hours committed to it as you wish to allow, and in the long term, once the skills have been acquired, the Forex can provide a substantial form of income.

Will the Forex make money for you? That is an individual question and will depend on all the variables discussed above. Do your homework, check out educational materials, examine your current workload and circumstances, be honest about your personality style, and then make an informed decision.

To learn how to preserve your mental and emotional resources in addition to your account equity click here:

http://www.vitalstop.com/Forex/Advisor/forex-day-trading-mental-equity.htm

For a free pivot point calculator, Fibonacci calculator and the best free economic calendars click here:

http://www.vitalstop.com/Forex/tools.html

If you are looking for a comprehensive Forex education with mentoring from professionals check this:

http://www.vitalstop.com/Forex/forex-education.html

Forex Strategy Trading

There's no doubt about it, if you're interested in genuine investment opportunities, then forex strategy trading offers you enormous possibilities. More commonly known as the foreign exchange market, it is believed that the forex sees approximately $1.5 billion in turnovers each and every day. However, in order to see regular returns on your investments, its vital you have some knowledge of forex strategy trading.

Your first step in forex strategy trading is to learn the market. Get to know the market and educate yourself on how the system works. Youll find that the major players on the forex marketplace are the commercial banks, central banks and also businesses who deal in foreign trade. Many companies and individuals are attracted to the forex market because of the speed and the liquidity of assets. Transactions take place in an instant and many are attracted to the promise of large profits.

The currencies most frequently traded are the US Dollar, the Euro, the Japanese Yen, the British Pound and the Australian Dollar. Trading is both speculative and virtual in nature, there isnt a physical product that is actually being brought or sold. For instance, you might decide to buy the British Pound with the US Dollar in the hope of seeing a rise in the pound. Then when its value has risen, you would sell it for a profit.

Also, before you actually start trading, practice! You can actually practice trading on paper. This will help to become familiar on how the market works. You will find that some online brokers do permit free paper trades, this helps you to practice and get used to the tools and software involved and of course, you gain invaluable experience in the process.

When choosing a forex dealer, be sure to do your research on the company. Make certain that the dealer is regulated by the law and can offer good customer service. Avoid any dealers with schemes that sound too good to be true!

Forex trading may well seem attractive and a good way to invest your money. But it can be stressful at times and even the most experienced investors will make losses from time to time. The key is to minimize the losses by educating yourself, learning from your errors and following a strategy that works for you.

Mark Gardner is a popular webmaster and publisher of http://www.exchangeforexrate.com To get the latest on the forex market and the exchange forex rate check out our website today!

TTS Newsletter #3

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WELCOME & CONTENTS

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Hello, and welcome to your fortnightly newsletter from the

offices of TrainerTrackStats.

In this issue:

- Review since last newsletter

- System angle: Quick Return Chasers

- The joke...

- Tomorrow's qualifiers

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REVIEW SINCE LAST NEWSLETTER

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In the last newsletter, I showed you a way to profit from the changes in going that can happen at this time of year. Well, without so much as a crystal ball, that proved to be very prescient, as the rains came recently and changed many tracks from Good to Firm, to Soft. With a plethora of non-runners, there were also many horses running on the 'wrong' ground for them, and a few shock results as a consequence.

Its also been a disappointing run for TTS followers. In the last newsletter's "Tomorrow's Qualifiers" section I tipped two winners, at 5/1 and 4/6, along with a 2nd at 12/1, from four selections. But since then, its been a war of attrition with rays of TTS sunshine few and far between.

Sunday 15th October summed it up, when Red Scally, a qualifier until his price moved from 14/1 to 16/1 two minutes before the off, outstayed the opposition to triumph. Some solace for me when some of my subscribers told me they'd backed it, but in truth, the strict interpretation of TTS dictates that I cannot record it as a win for TTS.

Looking ahead, its definitely a case of 'onwards and upwards' for TTS, with many of the big stables now gearing up for the season proper after a sleepy start. 11th November sees the Murphys Gold Cup meeting at Cheltenham and, from then on, its action all the way to the end of April. For TTS fans, its action from right now, as there is jump racing in the UK pretty much every day from here.

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SYSTEM ANGLE: QUICK RETURN CHASERS

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An angle that you should always be aware of when betting, is the significance of a horse making a quick comeback. I have for some time paid close attention to horses running within 3 days of a previous effort on the All Weather, and I wondered if the same principle held true for jumpers.

As ever, I put this to the test with my trusty Racing Systems Builder software (the same hugely impressive database I trawl to locate the TrainerTrackStats nuggets). After playing around with a few variables, I ended up with the following criteria:

Handicaps (Chase and Hurdles)

3-8 years old

Ran 1, 2 or 3 days ago

7/2 or less

YEAR WINS RUNS STRIKE% LSP LSP% VSP%

2001 6 17 35.29 0.99 5.82 -5.84

2002 5 15 33.33 -0.77 -5.13 10.81

2003 11 27 40.74 5.25 19.44 21.78

2004 16 34 47.06 14.06 41.35 39.25

2005 12 23 52.17 15.13 65.78 61.71

____________________________________________________________

50 116 43.10 34.66 29.88 28.05

As you can see, though there aren't too many qualifiers, they win pretty much every other start, and are well worth following.

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THE JOKE.......

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Nothing to do with horse racing or winner finding but quite funny nonetheless!

(With apologies to all nerds - myself included - in advance!)

A truck driver is hauling a trailer load of computers, and stops for a beer. As he approaches the bar he sees a big sign on the door saying "Nerds Not Allowed - Enter At Your Own Risk!" He goes in and sits down. The bartender comes over to him, sniffs, says, "You smell kind of nerdy. What do you do for a living?" The truck driver says, "I drive a truck, and the smell is just from the computers I am hauling."

The bartender says, "Okay, truck drivers are not nerds." and serves him a beer. As he is sipping his beer, a skinny guy walks in with tape around his glasses, a pocket protector with twelve kinds of pens and pencils, and a belt at least a foot too long. The bartender, without saying a word, pulls out a shotgun and blows the guy away.

The truck driver said, totally shocked, "Why did you do that?" The bartender said, "Not to worry, the nerds are overpopulating Silicon Valley and are in season now. You don't even need a license." The truck driver finishes his beer, gets back in his truck, and heads back onto the freeway. Suddenly he veers to avoid an accident, and the load shifts. The back door breaks open and computers spill out all over the freeway. He jumps out and sees a crowd already forming, grabbing up the computers. They are all engineers, accountants and programmers wearing the nerdiest clothes he has ever seen.

He can't let them steal his whole load. So, remembering what happened in the bar, he pulls out his gun and starts blasting away, felling several of them instantly. A highway patrol officer comes zooming up and jumps out of the car screaming at him to stop. The truck driver said, "What's wrong? I thought nerds were in season." "Well, sure," said the patrolman. "But you can't bait 'em."

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TOMORROW'S QUALIFIERS

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The TTS runners for Thursday, 19th October are:

Haydock

2.40 Flake

3.40 In Extra Time (PRICE WARNING)

4.40 Rival Bidder

Sea Wall (DOUBTFUL RUNNER)

Ludlow

2.50 Cannon Fire

Note the (PRICE WARNING). These horse - like all qualifiers -

must be 14/1 or shorter to be a qualifier.

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REMINDER / NEXT LETTER...

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Well, that's about all for this letter. I hope you've enjoyed it. Before I close, I'd like to take the opportunity to remind those of you who have yet to subscribe that I now have a daily email subscription service for TrainerTrackStats, giving you all the following day's selections the night before. Better still, you can take a FREE trial for a week before having to invest a penny of your 'hard earned'.

For more information, go to www.trainerflatstats.com/subscribe

Next newsletter will be in your inbox on or around 31st October.

Finally, if you have any comments / feedback on this letter, or anything you'd like to see in future,

please email your suggestions to enquiries@trainerflatstats.com

I'll look forward to hearing from you!

As ever, thanks for reading, and best regards

Matt Bisogno

Author, TrainerTrackStats NH 2006/7

http://www.www.trainerflatstats.com

Matt Bisogno is a lifelong horseracing and betting enthusiast, and has published a number of statistical analyses of trainer patterns for horse racing betting purposes.

Can You Make Money Flipping Houses in This Market?

Even though the real estate market has entered a "correction cycle," there's no need to sit on the sidelines, waiting for the market to rebound. There's still money in flipping houses, even during an economic downturn. Here are a few suggestions:

First, save money on your building materials. A good place to find discounted construction materials, paint, and appliances is at ReStore, the retail outlet of Habitat for Humanity. You can purchase quality used or surplus building materials, doors, lighting fixtures, and hardware for your project at a fraction of the normal price.

If you don't have a ReStore nearby, shop around for an appliance store that offers returned, refurbished, or scratch-and-dent appliances at a discount. If you let it be known that you're in the market for those kinds of items, you may find a store owner who'd rather sell those types of appliances to you rather than writing them off altogether. Ask. You have nothing to lose, and profits to gain--especially during a market downturn.

Another way to sell your house is to research your target buyers and then make sure your project meets what they're looking for. When the market's hot, you can get away with painting the walls white and installing neutral carpet, but when times are tighter, you have to be more creative. If you know your potential buyers, you can tailor your flipping efforts toward attracting them.

Along that same line, don't underestimate the value of staging a house to attract your target buyers and to prompt them to offer top dollar. You don't have to totally furnish it. Just add a few strategic decorations to prompt potential buyers to begin visualizing what their own furnishings would look like in the home.

Finally, it's important to close sales quickly during a down market. If you find someone who really likes the home, don't spend too much time negotiating. The term "buyer's market" means that buyers have the advantage, so when you find someone willing to buy your house, don't try to squeeze out every dollar of profit you can. Take your profit and move on, since you can never be sure when the next offer will come in--and in real estate especially, time truly is money.

It doesn't matter if the market is up or down. You can still make money flipping houses if you plan carefully--and then stick to your plan.

Free "The Truth about Making Money Flipping Houses" ebook at http://www.doghousetodollhousefordollars.com/free_flipping_houses_ebook.html

Copyright 2007 Jeanette Fisher

Youth Ill Prepared for Life Changing Credit Decisions

"Too few credit cards can hurt your credit score," said Evan Hendricks, author of Credit Scores & Credit Reports. That's because a thin credit profile doesn't provide as much evidence to lenders that you're capable of paying back your debts on time as the more extensive track record of someone who is responsibly managing several cards and loans.

CNN Money

I really enjoyed this article about managing your personal credit. I think it is incredible sad how ill prepared kids enter society in regards to managing their credit. Most people I know fall into one of three categories:

1. "What's my credit? I could care less."

2. "I have credit cards that let me spend as much as I want. Cool!"

3. "My mom said that credit cards were invented by Satan, so I should stay away."

The number of people, especially young people just starting out, that actually actively work to manage their credit is very small. This is despite the fact that building your credit will probably save you more money in the long run than any 401K or savings account ever could. A good credit score can save tens of thousands of dollars over the life of a mortgage, and puts you in a position to leverage your credit when starting a business or even beginning a new job.

Very few people are aware that the government has mandated that each of the three big credit agencies, TransUnion, Experian and Equifax, give a free credit report annually since 2004. They don't give you your actual score, but they let you see all the entries in your file, and correct any inaccuracies that have creeped in. This can be viewed at www.annualcreditreport.com, not to be confused with www.freecreditreport.com, which is a sneaky hook by Experian to get you signed up for their service.

As for those people that think credit cards are evil, they should all stop surfing the internet. Yes, a lot of good has happened as a direct result of the internet, but porn is also much more accessible. With any incredibly powerful and life-changing technology, the power is a double edged sword. Used correctly, credit can make your life 10x easier. I use credit cards for every expense in my life, from a $0.99 candy bar to a $2,500.00 computer. As long as you pay it off monthly, the benefits are 3-fold:

1. It's like a 30 day zero interest loan. Your money can sit in the bank or in the stock market and be earning you interest, while the money you spent costs you nothing.

2. You have protection like cash or checks will never offer. If your wallet gets stolen, you just cancel your cards, and even if someone charges something on them, you are protected and usually don't even have to pay a fee to have the charge reversed.

3. Points accrue and you can get some really cool stuff. I get 1-3% of my purchases awarded as Amazon.com gift certificates. Again, as long as you are paying off your cards, that's like a 2% discount on every purchase you make!

That all being said, credit cards have doomed thousands of people to never ending debt, but that isn't the fault of the credit cards, it's because we Americans love accruing stuff. And we wonder why we have such a large trade deficit...but that's a rant for another day.

In short, credit is your friend, and you should spend time improving it, much like you would woo a woman.

Derek Perkins is the CEO of Seatability (http://www.seatability.com), a bungee office chair manufacturer and distributor, and former owner of Pocket Innovations, a software company focused on portable software applications. Visit his blog at http://www.derekperkins.com for more information about business, personal finance and other topics.

Discipline and Market Timing

Profitable market timers are disciplined.

They control their impulses and feelings, and this allows them to execute a timing strategy by never failing to make every buy and sell signal the strategy produces.

The disciplined market timer is decisive. Many buy and sell signals are made during times of market volatility and usually contradict the majority opinion. Going against the prevailing sentiment is tough, but critical to success.

The undisciplined market timer, in contrast, wavers. He or she may stick with a timing strategy occasionally, while going a different way at other times.

Discipline is indeed a key ingredient to success, but not everyone has a high level of self discipline. It is worth recognizing where you stand on this trait, and if you lack discipline and self control, work to build it up.

Well Studied Personality Traits

Discipline and self control are well studied personality traits.

Some people are highly disciplined and very self controlled. They scrupulously follow rules, and are careful to control their impulses.

You know the type; they pay off their credit cards every month, are never late for an appointment, and carefully plan every detail of their lives.

Although these characteristics may be ideal for trading, there's a downside:

Such people tend to have trouble taking risks. They prefer a sure thing, and any "single" market timing buy or sell signal is rarely a sure thing.

Market timers have recognized the even larger risks in a "buy and hold" approach to investing, and have decided to take a more active approach to growing their savings.

They may not recklessly seek out risk, but they accept some risk as necessary.

How Is Your Discipline And Self Control?

However, market timers may not have the same degree of discipline and control as the rule followers described above. Perhaps that's why so many articles are written preaching the virtues of discipline and self control.

How is your discipline and self control? Do you have trouble sticking to a timing strategy? Do you hesitate when faced with a buy or sell signal and look for reasons to justify "not" taking the trade?

Do you long for more discipline and self control when it comes to your timing?

It's not necessarily the case that a disciplined market timer is disciplined in all aspects of his or her life, but it helps. The life strategies we use everyday may bleed over into our investing life.

If you find yourself second guessing timing strategies that you are following, try to remember that the key to timing success is making "all" of the trades.

It is necessary to recognize that timing success is achieved by taking not just those trades which you agree with, but also by taking the tough trades. The ones which may even seem foolish at the time.

There is no way to know "ahead" of time which buy or sell signal will be the one that is the beginning of the next big trend. The one you do not take, is usually the one that makes all the profits.

The Hare and the Tortoise

Timing success is similar to the story of "The Hare and the Tortoise." The hare may be fast, but the tortoise won the race because it never slowed, never stopped, but just kept moving forward.

The hare was fast, but lacking in discipline. He also bragged about his success to everyone he saw. But he did not stay the course, and took a nap (missed trade?) at the wrong time.

Discipline is easy when you are profitable. Discipline is not so easy when you are not.

Yet the only way you will achieve market timing success is to stick to the strategy at all times. That means in good times, as well as hard times.

Successful timing strategies are designed to keep timers in the right positions (long, short or in cash) the majority of the time, so that they can outperform buy and hold investors, and also avoid taking large losses during market corrections.

They are not designed for instant profits. Some few day traders may achieve that, but like the Tortoise, timers are looking to win over time.

Remember... if you find yourself wavering about taking a trade... once you are behind on a buy or sell signal, it is very hard to get back in.

And lastly, the trade you do not take is inevitably the trade that makes all the profits!

Build A Profitable Forex Trading System In Less Than 1 Hour

Any body even a newbie can build a profitable forex trading system all you have to do is make it fit your personality and follow these three main points.

1. Keep it simple. It is proven that systems work far better when things are kept simple.

2. Cut your losses and let profits run. Always risk less than you are gaining this is paramount to your long term success trading forex.

3. Trade with the trend. Always follow the longer term trend, this will place the odds of your trade being profitable far higher.

Right then now lets get on with building our profitable forex trading system.You need the following components in your system.

Entry- defines your entry into the market

Stop- defines your risk on the trade

Trade management- defines when to move stops and lock in profit or take profit off the table.

Exit- defines where to exit your position.

Keeping all these points in mind lets build a profitable forex trading system.

For my entry I will use support/resistance horizontal lines with a engulfing candle. Trades can only be taken with the longer term trend!

My stop will be placed behind the engulfing candle risking no more than 3% of my account on each trade.

I will use a trailing stop of the same amount I risked to lock in profits as the trade moves into profit.

I will exit the position once I have gained 3 times what I risked doing this means I only have to have 25% profitable trades to b/e.

That's it, I have created a profitable forex trading system, how do I know its profitable? I back tested it manually over lots of data. I suggest you do the same with your system and your will get a huge confidence boost in your trading.

While creating your first profitable forex trading system try to keep in mind your situation. How many times you want to trade a week. What your schedule is and build around these things.

Do You Want To Make Consistent Money Trading Forex? Dean Saunders has created the *Ultimate* FREE forex trading system that has helped 100's of Forex Traders become profitable. Click Here and grab your FREE copy of Dean's amazing trading system!

Futures Trading Systems - How to Build Huge Long Term Gains

Futures trading systems allow anyone to build long-term capital gains quickly, and without incurring high asset manager fees. Systems and can yield annual profits of 50% to 100% - sometimes even more.

You should consider using a futures trading system for the following reasons.

1. Diversification a number of asset classes are covered that are uncorrelated to the stock markets - and they include, currencies, interest rates, stock indices, metals, energies, grains and meats, and food and fibre.

2. Systems generate profits in any market condition you can make money in both rising, and falling markets - meaning there are constant opportunities for profit.

3. The global economy is expanding fast - and countries such as India and China, are leading a worldwide global economic expansion. The perfect example of this boom is the huge rise in the price of crude oil.

4. Futures trading systems have a technical basis they follow market momentum. Systems dont care why prices move - they simply follow market trends, to stack up huge capital gains.

5.Futures trading systems are quick and easy to use - you can manage your own investment in less than 30 minutes a day, and still make huge gains - without paying large fees to fund managers.

The Popularity of Futures Trading Systems

The popularity in futures trading systems is fuelled by the growth of the Internet - and the fall in the price of high-powered computers and software. Now, anyone with a basic computer and an Internet connection can trade for big profits.

Build Your Own System, or Buy One?

Its down to the individual - but it is easy to build your own system.

If you want the perfect futures trading system, then read articles on breakout systems. Breakout systems are simple to understand and use - and the rules are programmable into many software packages, such as Supercharts and Tradestation.

If you want to buy a futures trading package there are many good ones around, just use this checklist:

1. Make sure you understand the logic the logic needs to be easy to understand - so you have the confidence to follow it. Avoid the so-called black box systems where the logic not visible to you.

2. Track record Look for some form of real time track record - not just a hypothetical simulation. Lets face it - we can all make money - if we know the price history!

3. Check the vendor and his background carefully - so you are comfortable with the support, and backup you may need.

4. Make sure you check the drawdowns - check the worst time to invest and the fall from this level also, how long does it take to make a new high. This of course could happen again - and you will need to be prepared for short-term losses - and this will give you good guide.

5. Look for a long-term trend following system - as long-term trends make the biggest profits. Avoid day trading systems, as these tend to be less effective.

Buying a futures trading system is really just down to common sense. Find out as much as you can about the system, and logic - until you are comfortable about making a purchase.

Get Ready for Big Profits

We are seeing huge moves in commodity and future contracts - and these moves can yield big profits.

The advantage of a technically based futures trading system, is that you dont need to decide when to enter - the system will simply lock in, and follow the big trends as they emerge.

A Disciplined Plan for Profits

The advantage of using a futures trading system, is that you are not subject to your emotions - which is the main reason futures traders tend to lose money.

Crude oil has made many people look at trading the markets - but there are always great trends around. For example, currencies are always trending - as are many of the other groups.

In conclusion, futures trading systems are quick and easy to use, save you money on advisor fees, add diversification to your portfolio, and give you the potential for big capital gains.

New! A valuable FREE Currency Trader CD containing 9 critical trading reports, tips, strategies and trading systems info. Visit our web site now and grab your CD http://www.tradercurrencies.com.

Online Futures Trading - Getting Your Start With Paper Trading

Online Futures Trading - Getting Your Start With Paper Trading
In sports the saying is that you only play as good as you practice. In other words, if you dont work hard learning to do something well you will never do it well when the game begins. The same is true when it comes to investing; if you dont learn the concepts of successful trading before you start investing, you are in danger of losing a lot of money very fast. Thanks to the wonderful world of computers, you can prepare for online futures trading by paper trading.

What is Paper Trading?
At this moment you probably understand online futures trading, but paper trading may be strange to you. Paper trading is a method of online futures trading where you can practice investing in the stock market with a hypothetical brokerage account. Everything about this type of online futures trading is the same as the real thing but with paper trading, you lose nothing. If you make a bad purchase when you are paper trading, it is recorded in your account but since you didnt actually do any online futures trading, you didnt lose any real money.

What is Online Futures Trading?
Online futures trading is different from trading common stocks or bonds since you dont actually take possession of anything. In online futures trading, you are speculating on the future direction of a commoditys price that you are trading on the Internet. It is kind of like placing a bet on which way a price will move. Buy" and "sell" are terms that indicate the direction you expect future prices will take. You only need to deposit enough money with a brokerage firm to insure that you will be able to pay the losses if your trades lose money; take a good look at the words pay the losses. When paper trading futures, you are immune from those dirty words!

Online futures trading offers a form of price protection for those who are trading and investing. A farmer may sell corn futures on his crop if he thinks the price will go down before the harvest; conversely, a cereal manufacturer may buy futures if they think the price of wheat is going to rise before the harvest. Regardless of the price movement, both are guaranteed their price. The other person in the deal is the investor who never sees the trading floor, but is doing online futures trading and looking to gain advantages by buying or selling futures at a profit.

Getting Started with Online Futures Trading
There are quite a few companies on the Internet that offer free paper trading; a simple Google search will give you more choices that you can imagine. These companies offer this service in hopes that after you get comfortable with online futures trading, you will open a commodity account with them. In the meantime, once you have registered, simply follow the directions of the commodity trading software and you are ready to begin.

What You Might Notice
If you decide to get started without learning anything about online futures trading, you will be in for a surprise. The language of futures trading is different. There is terminology you need to learn, strategies that you wont understand and even the trading software will probably be confusing. It's kind of like assembling a childs bike; before you start, read the directions. Before you try to start commodities trading, learn the terms, learning the techniques and learn the software where you are doing online futures trading.

Is Paper Trading Futures Important?
By itself, paper trading futures is not important; it just simulates the things required for online futures trading. What is important while paper trading futures is the approach you take. If you take this lightly or dont understand the importance of learning futures trading, you should seriously reconsider ever entering the futures markets. This is a skill to learn and not doing so means losing your money, so dont take your paper trading or your online futures trading lightly.

Conclusion
Online futures trading is a unique business opportunity where you can practice and learn for free. A successful trader will use the opportunity to practice investing before trying online futures investing.

http://www.candlestickforum.com/PPF/Parameters/1_21_/candlestick.asp A site dedicated to stock market investing using Japanese Candlesticks

Trading On Borrowed Time? Part 1

Have you heard the one about the poor guy who ends up lost in a minefield? Having no clue what to do, he prays, covers his eyes and walks a straight line. Miraculously, he survives. Brimming with confidence, he is convinced that if it happens again, he will employ the same technique to survive. Well, you can figure out the rest of the story. Boom. Its just too obvious. That guy was simply on borrowed time.

This guy could be any number of traders, including you, who trade in the same style. Finding themselves in that proverbial minefield with huge intra day losses. In a fit of desperation, they put on crazy Hail Mary trades with double, triple, and quadruple the normal size just looking for that miracle. You also know the ending to this story.

The one word that injects fear into the heart of every trader is blowout. As in, Honey, I blew out the account again and (Honey, please put the gun down..).

Control is the essence of good trading. You cant control the markets, but you can control your actions. You either have the control or you hand it over. This is a multi-layered statement, which I will explain later. As a trader, handing over control is putting it lightly. Realistically, you get beaten into a bloody pulp and have no other options but to submit.

Are you on borrowed time? If you are doing any of the following actions, then you are trading on borrowed time:

1)You go ALL IN on any single stock aka a Hail Mary.
2)You go all in on a stock position into an earnings report or an FDA meeting
3)You are constantly praying for a position to go your way even though all your original premises and signals have broken down
4)You start justifying your trade position with a longer term out look and decide to invest or swing the trade.
5)You keep trading to make up the commissions
6)You keep trading to make up losses on the day, even through the setups are blurry
7)You go double, triple or more of your normal comfort level size on trades after each stop loss--- especially when its during consolidation periods
8)Your intraday losses are greater than 10% of your account
9)You cant leave the screens for fear of missing an opportunity, not even to go to the bathroom
10) You regularly pray for just one more miracle trade! (several times a day)

Theres a fine line between having control and plunging head first into the abyss. This line can be crossed merely by a string of emotional stop losses. These losses can turn into a domino effect that gradually snowballs into disaster. The trader loses all sense of objectivity and pushes silly trades with size just to get back to even. As the trader continues to throw Hail Mary trades with too much size, he gets more and more desperate. Eventually, this trader is going to regain some of his senses and call it quits for the day, proceed to blowout the account or get real lucky as a miracle trade plays out, digging him out of the abyss. Every trader faces the abyss and recovers at least once with a miracle trade. Rather than considering this as a gift, consider it more of a warning. Just like our guy from the minefield, if the trader doesnt change his ways, a blow out is eminent.

Miracle Whip-ped
After a miracle trade, a trader will come to one of two conclusions. This is where the fate of the trader is sealed.

The trader will realize how lucky he was, take a step back and reevaluate his methods objectively. He will take the necessary steps to get back in control and maintain control. Never for once will the trader mistake the miracle trade for some great feat of trading ability. He got lucky. He wont be so lucky the next time.

Or

In the absence of reason, the trader will chalk it up to skill and natural born talent. Lol. The miracle trade has now embedded a dangerous precedent in the mind of the trader. In the guise of a profitable trade, the market has placed a ticking time bomb into the mindset of the poor trader. The trader will go on as if nothing has happened. He will inevitably find himself in the minefield again. He may survive again, which makes it even worse. With each successive miracle trade, the trader gains more false confidence. Instead of avoiding the minefield, this foolish trader now actively seeks them out. Its like a scene from some B rated horror flick where the victim is completely unaware of the psycho killer behind him. It doesnt take a genius to figure out the inevitable conclusion to this story. Lets just say, dead man walking. The best way to not get blown up in a minefield is to not place yourself in a minefield

The Paradox of Trading
Profitable trading is an endeavor that goes against human nature, mainly because of these annoying flaws called emotions. Fear and greed compose the actions of the market. When a position is profitable, greed kicks in until the position turns bloody and then fear kicks in. Blow off tops are peaks with the most volume because thats when the crowds greed gets the best of them as they chase an entry to get in on the action, only to have it peak and tank. The same holds with capitulation when the pain is too great and the crowd finally exits a losing position, right before it bounces.

The notion of working harder for a greater reward may apply in the job force, but in the world of trading, working harder as in making more trades means losing more money. There is a capacity to the number of trades one can effectively make before the slippage from stop losses and commissions far out weigh the profits. In fact, there are times to pay very close attention to the markets (like the first hour of trading) and time where its absolutely detrimental to pay too close attention (like the deadzone midday period).

As for control, people think the more stringent, tight focused and attentive you are during the day, the more profitable you will be. This expectation of control paints an almost militaristic picture of keeping a tight clenched fist on the market all day long. It implies that you are carefully watching every tick and gyration of the market with complete uninterrupted attention. It means you carefully analyze and berate yourself on every trade because you could have made more or you should have stopped out earlier. It means you have high expectations every day with a positive mental attitude and absolutely require no less than excellence. It means you have to be hard on yourself because you can always strive for better. You are the bastion of ironclad fortitude and dedication. Blinking is not an option, sir!

All the above criteria is perfect recipe for success in the corporate and fast food world, but when it comes to trading the markets, its a death sentence. This type of rigidity will eventually force a person to breakdown from the stress. Basically, the trader has already placed such impossible goals that he not only shoots himself in the foot, but eventually will voluntarily turn the gun on himself to relieve the pressure.

In fact, deep inside, the trader subconsciously invites the possibility of a blow out just to finally relieve the pressure of having to make money every day. Its like trying to get yourself killed just so you can finally get a good nights sleep. To a rational person observing from the outside, its insanity. But to the trader locked in his own prison within the eye of the storm, this rationalization is the only way out. This self-induced pressure is completely foolish, detrimental and hazardous. In all reality, its a form of self abuse. The line that separates one from being a delusional humanoid and a masochist freak is about as wide as a Mack truck. Get real. Everyone has their own threshold levels for stress. The key here is to place yourself only in situations where that threshold never has to be tested.

Instead of expecting to make big profits going into the trading day, try expecting less to end up with more. If you make $500 in either case, which mindset leaves you with confidence?

The first mindset leaves you wanting more. You should have made more. Try harder tomorrow, junior. This builds pressure to do better which is carried into the next day.

The second mindset leaves you with a confident and controlled peaceful state of mind, humble yet confident. You done good, even better than expected. Dont expect as much tomorrow, just filter tight and let the trades play out. No expectations equates to no pressure going into the next market day.

The Cognitive Dissonance Theory by Dr. Leon Festinger shows very clearly why people blowout their accounts when they start off this rigid. When contradicting piece of knowledge known as cognitions collide, they create stress. Human nature is to relieve that stress either through changing his beliefs or behavior.

Thats because they want to take the pressure off. Traders inherently desire to fail to relieve the pressure.

Human nature is to reduce stress by changing ones belief or ones actions.

Since 1998, UndergroundTrader.com has had thousands of traders worldwide come through the doors. Many of these traders learned the methods, applied their own style to them and left as profitable self-sustaining traders. Unfortunately, many other traders were internally programmed to blow out their accounts no matter what they were taught or told, and proceeded to do just that. Its a tragic but real aspect of this game. Everyone cant win.

However, a lot has changed since the old days. Trading has taken on a complete paradigm shift. The industry has gone through its boom and bust filtering cycle. As with every trend, theres the parabolic pop (1998-2000), the bust (2001-2004) and then a slow reemergence (2004-present). The good news is there are plenty more resources and materials available that work to shorten the time and costs of the learning curve. From training materials to trade simulators and back testing software, its gotten more sophisticated and more accessible. Nasdaq level 2 has been bypassed for converging time frame charts. Volume trading has been bypassed for sniper trading. Scalpers have evolved into range players. Basket trading has been bypassed for pattern trading. Full time trading is now effective part time trading. Less is more. The markets require more attention to pacing over methods. This is all part of the evolution of the trading markets. Failure to adapt results in extinction.

The people entering this game tend to be more educated and aware of the risks involved. Now if they only get rid of the pattern day trading rule and move to .05 spread increments, wed be in heaven.

The bad news is that as long as its humanoids making trades, there will still be blowouts. Then again, this is the market, a supposed zero sum game. We cant saveem all, only the ones who can adapt. For most, its really a blessing in disguise as they move forward with their lives to pursue other endeavors. For some, its a calling.

Some of the most successful traders I know blew out their earlier accounts first. Its almost a rite of passage amongst the old school traders. The pain and agony they suffered is a constant reminder of what they did wrong. It forced them to reevaluate and re assemble their methods. It allowed them to identify when a bad situation is forming and they are wise enough now to avoid it. I remember reading an interview with a successful fund manager who claimed his success was based on making every mistake possible enough times to know not to make them again. Traders dont have to go this route any more.

As I said, the resources available on the internet alone should be enough to thoroughly reduce a traders learning curve, but, some things just cant be taught. They have to be felt. Pain is a thorough and thought inducing teacher, as long as you learn from it.

Todays trader not only has to possess the ability to objectively assess the market, but also assess his own actions and mental state. He needs to be acutely aware of when he is pushing the risk envelope a little too hard as quality of set ups decline. Most importantly, he has to have the ability to ease up on the pedal or downright hit the breaks before disaster hits.

In the second article, I will go over the steps to climb back out of the abyss and prevent yourself from falling back in again. Please dont overtrade tight markets and stay out of deadzone. Good trading!

Please send any feedback or questions to jay@undergroundtrader.com

Jea Yu is a co-founder of http://www.Undergroundtrader.com , an interactive active trader chatroom and training site that has served over 8,000 traders, fund managers and investors worldwide since 1998. His brainchild was voted Forbes Best of the Web for four consecutive years under the active trader category. Mr. Yu has published two best sellers through McGraw Hill "Undergroundtrader.com Guide to Electronic Trading" ,2001 and "Secrets of the Undergroundtrader",2003 as well as two popular trading videos titled "Level 2 Warfare" and "Beating the Bear" published through Traders Library. He has been a featured speaker all over the country at various expos and seminars who enjoys a standing-room-only reception in the largest convention halls. Jays energetic presentation style, along with his obvious mastery of the materials being covered makes him an audience favorite. He has been quoted in USA Today, WallStreet Journal, and the Financial Times. Mr. Yu is an active contributing writer for http://www.TradingMarkets.com

Fact - Forex Trading is Not Easy - 95% of Traders Lose!

As a regular trader I am amazed at what I see written about forex trading and how easy it is - it may be easy to become a forex trader but its far harder to win! Here are some facts to consider before you start to trade.

I have been a trader for 25 years and can tell you from first hand experience becoming a winner is not easy, listen to what I say, as I am no self proclaimed guru or mentor guaranteeing success.

The first fact to consider is there is a lot of advice on the net making claims that simply are not realistic and in many cases pure lies.

Trade with 80% accuracy, earn 20 pips a day, earn a regular income, the secrets of market movement revealed etc. youve seen them as well.

There normally made with no substantiation (try and get a real track record) and mostly marketed by clever sale people or failed brokers.

Fact: They make money from selling you information not trading it, well thats one way to make a guaranteed income from forex trading!

Once you have ignored the ridiculous claims, consider this:

Currency trading does offer huge rewards but with these rewards come risk.

The bigger the risk the bigger the reward if you dont like risk dont trade currencies.

Once you have accepted these facts - there is good news!

The first is that anyone who wants to can learn to trade and take calculated risks and make a lot of money forex trading remains one of the few areas where you can still start with small stakes and become wealthy.

The opportunity is open to all and there is no reason you cant take advantage of it.

You need to learn the right knowledge and base your forex trading strategy on trading the odds and you can get all the information free on the net.

Work smart and only learn what you need to and keep it simple its a fact of currency trading that simple systems work best as they are more robust.

Then its all down to mindset and the discipline to follow your system to gain long term success.

Dont believe its easy, but dont believe its impossible - its not.

As in all money making ventures (and forex trading is no different) you need to reply on yourself and get a system together you can have confidence in and follow it with discipline to win longer term.

You can do it but if you want to be a successful forex trader take into account what I have said and approach the markets with a realistic attitude of what you need to do and you can achieve currency trading success good luck!

GRAB 3 X FREE TRADER & FREE TRADER PROFITS NEWSLETTER

More on becoming a profitable trader some critical FREE Trader PDF's and more FREE Forex Education visit our website at http://www.net-planet.org/index.html

Investment Advice - Why you should start investing in Exchange Traded Funds today

Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are the rage today with many investors flocking to purchase them as opposed to the usual mutual funds. ETFs work in this way. The fund manager decides that he wants to mimick the returns of the NASDAQ so he just buys all the stocks that make up the index and then he sells shares in this fund to investors. This means that you have effectively diversified your risk when compared to another investor who buys and individual share. There are three related reasons why there has been an upsurge in recent years in the number of fund managers setting up these funds.

Low Cost

The first reason would be the relative low cost that works both ways. Since we are not stock picking, the fund manager needs just to set up software to ensure that the fund accurately mimics the stock holdings of the index. Some shares have a greater representation in the index than others by virtue of their large clout and number of shares issued in the market and the fund has to respond to that.

The other way the cost factor kicks in is that many investors today are happy and delighted to find an investment options that is cheap in terms of fees. Since the fund manager does very little monitoring or research for this fund, its really cheap to purchase this monthly and this makes a very good investment for the retail investor.

Defensive Investing

Benjamin Graham the value investing guru advocated the concept of defensive investing in an Exchange Traded Fund in his book The Intelligent Investor. In that book he did back calculations back to the days of the Great Depression and if you invested monthly since then, your average return would be 33% on average and its not bad considering the fact that you did not have to spend time wondering whether the index was up or down or whether your latest stock pick was in the money or not. Just buy a small amount monthly whether the stock market is up or down and use it as a rainy day fund that you can rapidly liquidate for ready cash. The reason why this is called defensive investing is that you do not have to spend time actively picking and most investors whether professional or retail lose money actively picking stocks and ETFs remedy this problem by sure probability and mathematical statistics.

Plurality of options

ETFs today are flooding the market with each of the top fund houses in New York setting up new and more fanciful financial baskets each day. Today there is a great plurality of funds that you can purchase from Tech ETFs to Banking ETFs to Energy ETFs and so you have no shortage of options. If you are optimistic on a certain sector and do not want to waste you energy and time picking the right company actively, ETFs with their current plurality of options is the great key to diversified investing in a particular sector. The time saved scrutinising financial data which is often padded up is not worth the effort some times when there is great intrinsic fraud like Enron and WorldComm.

In conclusion, ETFs today represent a cheap, effective way for you to do defensive investing and with that part of your money relatively secured, you can then spend some of your money doing active stock picking if you are so inclined. Take some effort this week to research into this financial instrument and you may find the returns better then your fund manager in the longer term (when averaged over time by virtue of statistical probability).

Copyright 2006 Joel Teo. All rights reserved. (You may publish this article in its entirety with the following author's information with live links only.)

Joel Teo writes on various financial topics relating to Ahwatukee Real Estate Investment. Signup for his free online Real Estate Investing newsletter today and gain access to the Six Day Real Estate Investment Profits Course now at www.realestateinvestment101.info/Ahwatukee.html

Forex Trading And Home Business

Forex, ie foreign exchange market has become very popular due to its immense size, liquidity, currencies moving in strong trends plus, an easy online access, relatively low starting capital and a big leverage.

All this is very attractive to many sorts of investors, speculators and also amateur people, especially online success chasers who imagine easy and fast profits. BUT it has its pitfalls and the Internet hype sellers and scammers make the situation even more dangerous.

Forex has enormous profit potential but since there is a substantial leverage involved working both ways, the same is the loss potential - the higher the profits, the higher the risk involved. And that is exactly the core of success in forex which is hidden from people seeking fast online profits.

People lacking basic character streaks like discipline, risk evaluation ability, experience and even basic information and training fall prey to false promises and start trading their last money on forex expecting quick riches.

It is necessary to be aware of the fact that trading currencies is not easy. If it was, no one would lose money and everyone would already be a millionaire. Many traders with years of experience still incur periodic losses. Everyone interested in trading forex must realize that trading takes time to master and there are absolutely no shortcuts to this process.

Yes, of course, it is possible to make it a long-term, profitable and sustainable source of high income and even a proper home business BUT the following are the basic rules for success in forex trading:

1. Discipline: it seems easy but the lack of discipline is the profit killer no 1. It is important to set your own rules and goals and stick to them. Do not panic if not everything goes the way you imagine and strictly keep the rules. One of the basic situations is losses: If you know you can lose only $1000, the discipline will help you stop trading if it happens, and not borrow and go on and on... Also, it is the discipline which helps you avoid magic profit calculations.

2. Responsible risk-taking and risk-evaluation ability: forex trading is an investment method not a casino. It is not possible to invest properly if you are not able to take up a calculated risk, if you are not able to calculate an acceptable risk, and if you are not able to even recognize a risk. The good news is that you can develop this ability.

3. Spare money: never trade your last money, always invest either profit or a reasonable amount of money you can lose. Always behave responsibly and never borrow money to trade.

4. Thorough education and training, incl practical training: it is imperative that before you start trading live, you get proper education and training, that you acquire working knowledge and develop your own working system on which you can build your investment strategies, routines and practice.

5. Never trade in a live-or-die situation or under any stress: many gurus say that you can make instant riches from forex investing your last money. It is one of the biggest lies I ever heard. Unless you feel absolutely comfortable, knowing what you are doing and why, enjoying the trading, you cannot trade successfully. Any stressed, unbalanced or anxious mind and brain is not able to evaluate situations correctly, react competently, and it is a paved road to failure and losses.

6. Always do your homework: another hype you can hear around says that everyone can trade just following someone else's advice and instructions. I can tell you only one word as an answer: rubbish. You must realize that you must be able to evaluate every situation, every trend, every forecast, create all the analysis, follow necessary trends, incl, of course, hearing specialized analysts BUT the decision and the money is yours only, so the responsibility is yours. The better your homework, the higher and more reliable your profits.

7. Learn from your mistakes and remain flexible: you must know that you will make mistakes, you will even lose in some trades but you must be a great trader and you must know it. When you make a mistake you must analyze the situation, find out why it happened and see to it that you will not repeat the same mistake in the future. You must not despair and fall into depression. You must stay positive and simply do better next time.

Plus a little closing note to only make you aware of these important topics which, however, exceed the scope of this basic informational article:

- yet another risk is here: it is vital to choose the right market-maker, big enough to allow you to make full use of currency moves. I stress a market-maker and not a broker,

and also,

- avoid managed accounts.

In case you are interested in mastering forex trading and start with the above points seriously, you are on the right way to trading success.

Irena Whitfield is the webmistress of http://www.thecassiopeia.com/ - Internet Business Consultant you need to make your online home business a real success. Without any hype, she will help you to get where you want to get. Get her new ebook Package 'Your Success Master Keys' , containing: 'Success Tips And Tricks' , '7 Stars of Online Success' and 'The Success Seeds: the Entrepreneurial Bible', and make your business profitable this year!

http://www.thecassiopeia.com/ePublishing/SuccessMasterKeys.html

Digital Photography - 11 Tips For Taking Better Digital Photographs Of Jewelry And Craft Items

I am often asked by jewelry and craft artists what they can do to improve their photography. Here are my top 11 tips for anyone that has problems taking great digital photographs.

1.Use a tripod and the camera self-timer. Using these two items at all times will give you clear and sharp photographs.

2.Keep the background clean and uncluttered. Remove any unnecessary items from the area that you are taking the photograph. This will also keep your eyes from being distracted from the subject of the photograph.

3.Move the camera as close to the subject as possible. Use the viewing screen on the camera, and fill up the screen as much as possible. This may mean that you will need to use the macro setting on your camera. Refer to your owners manual for the distances that the camera is designed for using the macro setting.

4.Keep your subject of the photograph focused. Nobody likes to look at a photograph that is out of focus. If your photo is not focused properly, then retake the photograph.

5.Avoid dark shadows. Use indirect sunlight, flash or other lighting sources for photographing your jewelry or craft items. Indirect sunlight is the best lighting source for photography.

6.Before you set up your camera equipment, have an idea in your mind of how you want the photograph to appear, when you view the finished photo.

7.Enhance your photographs by resizing, cropping, sharpening, rotating (when necessary), and compressing the image. Try to take your photographs so that you only have to do a minimum amount of enhancement. For example, you should not have to remove unwanted objects from the photo.

8.Read the camera owners manual and become familiar with all of the features of your camera. For example, some of the things that you should become familiar with are the self-timer, setting the white balance and the exposure values, how to take photographs using the manual or macro focusing settings, how to use the built in flash, how to zoom in and out from the subject of the photograph, and how to set the resolution you are going to use for taking your photographs.

9.Dont be afraid to experiment in taking photos. Try using different techniques for taking your photographs. Use a different camera angle, different lighting, rotate the object of the photograph, try different background colors, and try different exposure values for your photographs. You will never know what will or will not work unless you try using different techniques in your photography. You may be surprised at how well a new technique that you used actually makes your photographs turn out.

10. Do not expect to get the perfect photograph by taking just one or two photographs of an item. It may happen once in a while, but very seldom. I am rarely able to take just one or two photographs of an item that I want to photograph, and consider the photograph to be the best photo that I can possibly take. Expect to take five or more photographs before you are able to get the perfect photo.

11. If you use the cameras built in flash for your jewelry and craft photography, use the power cord that comes with your camera to generate the maximum amount of light output from the cameras flash unit for every photo that you take. As the cameras batteries start to discharge as you are using your camera, with or without using the flash, the light output from the cameras flash unit will decrease.

By using all of above tips when photographing jewelry and small craft items, you should see an immediate improvement in your photography.

You may want to print this tip sheet so that you can refer to it when you are doing photography.

Jim Juris

Jim Juris is a photographer who specializes in craft and jewelry photography. He has written an ebook titled- Inexpensive Jewelry Photography Techniuqes: How to use inexpensive techniques to photograph jewelry, craft, collectible, and online auction items. To learn more about his ebook, please visit http://www.inexpensivejewelryphotography.com Jim provides two free excerpts from his ebook on his web site.

Think, Buy, Sell... Repeat As Needed

Generally, a trader should meet buying with selling and vice versa when it comes to the stock market. Typically, stocks (especially when considered on an intra-day basis) will only go so high, or so low, before tending to attract the next group of contrarian thinkers and switch direction. Often times crowds (such as the markets) are wrong in their actions and over react to the up or down side. When the "markets" as a whole are moving up dramatically or down dramatically, there is a strong case to be made that these actions ultimately will be wrong or will tend to reverse simply as the contrary views of things builds on each side of the fence.

If you can train yourself to go against your natural emotions, you'll tend to be able to keep a clearer outlook on the markets. When stocks are being bought, you have to train yourself to think, "These stocks are buying bid up too high - maybe I should sit back and wait". By the same token, when there is a great deal of panic selling in the market, you need to train yourself to think, "Wow, look at all these prices falling - I may find good deals here soon". It's more difficult than you think to be "happy" when the markets are falling and "cautious" when the markets are rising. However, normally taking this view of things will help improve your trading over the long haul. The old saying, "Buy when there is blood in the streets" stems from this basic idea of going against the masses on Wall Street.

People tend to have a desire to buy at the bottom and sell at the top. Not just near the top, but the "exact" top. It's simply human nature to want to be the best at something, and trading is no different. Most people that take up daytrading want to be the best they can be. However, aiming for exact tops and bottoms when buying stocks can be very detrimental to your overall trading.

I would much rather give away 10% at the top and 10% at the bottom. You will drive yourself crazy if you punish yourself for not selling at the high or buying at the low, as it's almost impossible for most people to do on any sort of consistent basis. Far more often than not, you'll simply end up missing the trade. Even missing a top or bottom by 20% is nothing to worry about. As many a successful trader has said, "You can worry about the tops and bottoms, and I'll worry about the remaining 60%". In fact, it's often much safer to wait until a stock clearly signals a move either up or down before taking up your position.

Some people use stop orders quite often, some people hardly use them at all. In my view, stops are best used to protect a nice profit and/or limit down side risk in a trade that isn't acting as you think it should. How a stop is used (or placed) is largely dependent on the individual stock and how the overall market is behaving at any given time as well.

Often times using stops also helps to remove some of the emotions from trading. It's far easier to place a stop on a trade than watch it trade tick-by-tick and try to decide the exact moment to get out.

What about taking profits at big gains? At some point, just like experiencing a large loss, you are likely to hit a really big winner. When this happens, consider taking 1/2 your gains off the table right away to reduce risk to the profit you have just made. This allows you to continue to profit, but protects a large amount of the money you have just made. Additionally, you may wish to consider selling enough of the position to recoup your original investment. This results in the remaining shares effectively being "free" and allows you to hold them indefinitely without any fear of a "loss" to your original capital (which has now been removed completely).

When shorting stocks, there are several points to always keep in mind. Never short a stock simply based on the stock price. To really be successful as a short player (i.e. someone that shorts stocks), you need to locate stocks that are extended with a significant void of fundamental reasons. There must be some reason for the stock to decline in the near term (e.g. declining profits, lack of direction, etc.). Simply shorting a stock "because it has a high share price" is just inviting danger.

Additionally, keep in mind that shorting stocks exposes you to additional risks that are not present when buying or going "long" a stock. These include having the stock called away from you, as well as being caught in a short squeeze. Also keep in mind that the very act of shorting a stock increases the pent up demand for the stock - namely the number of people that will ultimately have to repurchase the security down the road to cover.

Finally, a good rule of thumb is to never short a stock which may end up on the front page of the Wall Street Journal or some other major financial publication. Typically, the best short candidates are stocks that have moved up rapidly on little or not fundamental changes and which are generally not well know to the investment public at large. While it's true you can make money shorting well known, large cap stocks, it tends to expose you to additional risks not associated with smaller and less well known companies.

Good luck in the markets!

No permission is needed to reproduce an unedited copy of this article as long the About The Author tag is left in tact and hot links included. Questions and comments can be sent to Ray at marketing@TraderAide.com.

Ray Johns is the founder and Senior Market Editor of Daytraders.com, Proudly serving day traders & short-term investors since 1996, at http://www.daytraders.com

Daytraders.com is the publisher of the award winning Morning Stock Market Report and the home of the Internets finest real time trading desk. Ray has been on the forefront of trading and investing in the markets and has appeared as a guest on a number of radio and television shows including CNBCs Market Talk. If you would like a free trail of the newsletter and the live trading desk log on to Daytraders.com. Comments and questions can be sent to articles@daytraders.com.