Do you remember when investing was easy?� I do. It all started around November 1998. I remember the many brokerage company commercials. Heck, eTrade spent $2 million on a Super Bowl ad staring a dancing monkey. Those were the halcyon days. Profitable day-trading was as easy as 1-2-3: Place buy order for any stock with a 4-letter ticker symbol(i.e. NASDAQ stocks) Play video games for the rest of day Place sell order at the close and count your profits. Investing was even easier. Just buy whatever new fancy Internet mutual fund just opened up(remember Monument?) and hold to the moon. Unfortunately, those days are long gone. Along with them, the buy-and-hold myth invented by mutual fund companies. Remember, they only make money when you are fully invested. Mutual fund managers are evaluated by how well they perform versus their benchmark. The benchmark is the standard by which they…

In honor of St.Valentines Day, I’d like to offer an unabashed view of the electronic e-mini index futures markets.  Like many people’s relationships, there are certain things about e-minis that I love �€“ and other things that I just have to put up with.  So let’s look at both sides of the coin, and see what conclusions we can draw about these ultra-popular trading tools. Things to Love About Index E-Minis: Liquidity.  This is what allows us to enter and exit trades with a minimum of slippage.  S&P 500 are among the most liquid exchange traded instruments in the world. Other index e-minis are also very liquidity and enjoy significant day trader participation.  These include the Dow, the Nasdaq and the Russell 2000.  More on each of these below. Level Playing Field.  With e-minis, all trades are…

Great lessons in trading can come from lots of places. Sometimes we get trading insights while playing golf or watching the ocean waves. But more traditionally (and reliably), I find that I learn best from other traders �€“ folks who have �€œbeen there�€ and �€œdone that�€. So it should come as no surprise that my business partner is a Wall Street veteran who has traded and worked with top traders for many decades. Christopher Castroviejo is one of those rare individuals who can look at a issue from many angles. He can take in competing points of view simultaneously and cull through scads of data to reach a meaningful conclusion.  While this is helpful in many areas of life, it’s easy to see how useful this skill set is in the trading world. As I’ve said in this…

The recent Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case makes pay-to-play regulations unconstitutional. Or at least, that’s the opinion of securities attorney Hardy Callcott, a partner at Bingham McCutchen LLP and former general counsel at Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. The court’s ruling Jan. 21 in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission gave corporations the OK to make unrestricted independent political expenditures. Mr. Callcott said the decision raises questions about the legality of Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board Rule G-37, which limits political contributions by municipal bond underwriters to individuals who can award bond business. A similar rule proposed last fall by the SEC that would regulate contributions by investment advisers would also be unconstitutional, Mr. Callcott said. If the SEC “blindly copies G-37 with its adviser pay-to-play rule, they’re going to create some problems for themselves,” Mr. Callcott said. But other observers…

Debts can be in the form of back taxes, loans, mortgages, and many others. You will need to list down all the debts you owe so that you can calculate how much you have to repay. Debt relief is possible but only if you know what you’re doing. The usual tendency of people when they have incurred huge debts is to stop making monthly payments, and they try to forget about the debts. This is not an ideal solution because the debts will still remain and there are times when the debt amount increases because of penalties or late fees. If you don’t meet up with your creditor now, you will surely be surprised at how much you’re going to repay in the end. Firstly, get a pen and paper. List down everything, down to the last centavo; also, don’t forget to indicate who the debt is owed. This is…

Due to the crisis encountered by the national economy, many people have incurred extremely large debts. Monetary obligations these days are dangling and continue to pile up. Some people tend to seek debt relief by paying off their debts with more debts, which are not an ideal solution. If you truly want to solve your debts, read on. Creditors vary. You can encounter creditors who are inconsiderate and unreasonable but there also those who are willing to negotiate. The fact is, most creditors are willing to negotiate for debt repayment, but you need to make the first move. Your creditors will simply send you communication and notifications as a reminder of your debts, but if you fail to respond, your account will be forwarded to collection agents. These agents will make your life miserable as they will call you day in and day out. Even if you get angry, these…