My father said the only time to get real growth is in a tough market. Well here it is! So what are you going to do?

Run for the boats? But where would the boat take you that things would be any better. The Truth is…your competitors are running for the boats right now. Boats to nowhere. That leaves many market opportunities for you. Starbucks is closing stores, banks are not making loans, but gas prices are falling. This is what I call WOO time. That is “Winninger Observes Opportunity Times!” Some of the biggest and best companies are those who weathered the economic storms of the past. Just think of Walgreen and Target. Each stayed to their courses, kept focused on what they did best or at least got back to what they did best. Look where they are today.

So can you. There are Truths that you must not miss. Customers are still buying. Well some customers are and all your resources should be aimed at them. 1. What can you sell them that they are buying somewhere else? 2. What other things should they be buying with what they are buying?

How about thinking of the paint can principle?

What goes with a paint can? That’s right, brushes, stirs, drop clothes, ladders, rollers, and masking tape! The problem with markets like this is that you cannot afford to miss the sale of the accessories. They will keep you in business. Think of the most frequent purchases you customers or clients make. What 5 things should they buy with that purchase? Yes get you average customer purchase up even though you traffic is going down. By the way, many find that even though transactions went down profit went up. Put items together that go together so that they get the idea. Ignorance is a bedding store that doesn’t display the pillow and other bedding accessories on the mattress. How are you doing? I assume that like 89% of the other businesses in you market you are letting needed sales walk out the door while trying to chase customers that aren’t even buying.

No longer! Not for you anyway! Start tracking the average customer purchases, display items that go together, together. Make clumps of choices. In other words, put together you 3 ways to something.

Don’t run for the boat. This is the time to own the island!

With people not being able to borrow money as easily before, and we are a nation of borrowers, it’s tempting for many businesses to stop marketing and to use their marketing budgets for other business costs. But unless you really need that marketing money in other business costs, it’s best to keep marketing. The economy will eventually bounce back and people will be borrowing and buying again. Many people are still able to purchase goods now, so don’t leave those people hanging.

What needs to be done now is to change your marketing approach, but still market. When creating your marketing plan for next year, here are some factors to keep in mind that will help you market successfully during this hard time.

1. Keep researching your target market. You knew your market last year or whenever the last time you conducted research, but now times are different and your target market’s spending is probably different. You need to know how consumers are responding to the imminent recession. Consumers are negotiating more than ever and are willing to trade down, postpone purchases or just buy less. Interest in new brands disintegrates in a recession, so focus on your current customers rather than look for new ones.

2. Focus your marketing on family values. More people will stay at home with family and friends during hard times. Use marketing scenes that show cozy home scenes with family, rather than adventurous destinations that people can’t afford to travel to. Telephone use, home entertainment and home furnishings will likely hold up well in this economy as more people stay home.

3. Maintain your marketing spending. It has been documented that brands that up the marketing effort, or at least keep it level, during a recession can improve market share and ROI at a lower cost than during a good economy. This is because those that can, do. Those that can’t – your competitors – fall away from the front lines, allowing room for you. If you must cut back, try to keep the quantity of ads up, but switch to cheaper ads – switch 30-second ads to 15-second ads and use radio ads instead of TV ads. Just keep your name out there, even if you can’t do it in the same capacity as before.

4. Alter pricing tactics. Customers are looking for good deals now. They want quantity over quality now because they need to make their dollar stretch more than ever before. Offer more sales and discounts, and price smaller packages more aggressively. When people don’t have as much moolah to spend, they concentrate on price more than promotions such as mail-in offers.

5. Alter your product line. You may need to favor and market multi-use products over specialized products because people want to get the most for their money. Gimmicks won’t work during a recession; you need reliable, durable, safe products that have shown to perform well in the past. Your marketing image should stress price for performance rather than a favorable corporate image.

I am not quite sure what got into me last night to listen to the presidentail debate, but I did, in its entirety.  

It reminded me of a couple things. The main thing that came to mind is when you call service xyz (credit card, bank phone service), whatever, and you keep getting sent to a different department, until finally you get a dead end recording or a loop that sends you in circles. When you do talk to someone, they tell you that its not their fault or that another department is in charge of that issue. Isn't that frustrating?

Well, thats the feeling I get after listening to the debate last night. The other guy did it, or the other party's policies ar responsible. Funny thing is that i believe them. The other party is responsible, both of them. The whole thing is rotten.

Check out this zine for some possible solutions, use the first (imposed) one to make copies to hand out, its a great season to spread the word!

Voting VS Direct Action

from http://crimethinc.com/tools/downloads/zines.html

Download Imposed PDF

Download Reading PDF

I like to go to a place, say...Walmart. I'll go to Walmart and I'll stay there for a good minute looking up and down every single thing on every aisle. This starts at the beginning, where there's all the roll back stuff...and I even make my way to the shoe section...even the gardening area. This doesn't just apply to Walmart, I do this everywhere I go...

I really like looking at all the things in the freaking store. The item, the prices. You'll be surprise at what you find...in a way it helps build a better photographic memory.

I'm also one of those people who reads every business sign. I'm actually pretty good at remembering people, places and things...especially like numbers and reading materials. It's like taking a snap shot of a page out of a book, and bringing that image up in your head when you need to. It's fantastic!

I think it's real neat that there's so many different types of way you can strengthen your mind. Everyone has their own strategies and techniques, it's so unique. I'm open to everything, so let me know how you do it! My friends always clown on me and but I think it's awesome.

Decide on the best strategy

Suggested Strategies

1. Allow them to publish their posts and monitor comments

2. Allow them to contribute content only

3. Review them and publish at Minner's discretion

4. Guest bloggers email her the posts and then she publishes them

Logistics for preparing for and hosting GUEST BLOGGERS

I didn't make this stuff up

• Different writers representing Ruth Minner
• The opinons of others
• right to refuse

Woodshedder has a backtested mechanical system that is showing some excellent results. This is the link http://www.ibankcoin.com/woodshedderblog/index.php/2008/10/05/trade-statistics-from-the-new-etf-trading-system/

I left a comment, promptly got banned, but have once again evaded the iBC'ers.

This was the section that I queried;

As this system has a Z-Score ranging between -2.615 and -4.730, we can assume with a high degree of certainty (at a confidence level of greater than 99%) that streaks longer than would be expected in a random distribution may occur while trading this system. This includes winning and losing streaks, but the Win% shows that the winning streaks are longer than the losers. To be clear, once this system starts hitting winning trades, it will continue to win. Similarly, once a losing trade or two happens, we know that it is more likely to continue losing than it is to start a new winning streak. This is why proper position sizing is of the utmost importance. I like 1% risk because that allows me to weather 10 losing trades in a row with only a ~10% drawdown.

My comment;

ducati998 Says:

Wood,

I have some questions regarding your useage of Z-scores.

First off I agree that stock prices, or any prices in financial markets are not a “random walk” viz. independent observations. Thus are trends accounted for.

This does not seem to be what you are stating here however…..

“To be clear, once this system starts hitting winning trades, it will continue to win. Similarly, once a losing trade or two happens, we know that it is more likely to continue losing than it is to start a new winning streak. This is why proper position sizing is of the utmost importance. I like 1% risk because that allows me to weather 10 losing trades in a row with only a ~10% drawdown.”

I disagree that the Z-score is an appropriate measure in this context [winning trades]

Second, Z-scores are calculated as part of a Gaussian distribution. As stock prices are non-Gaussian, again, is this an appropriate statistic?

Third point.
As this system is an overnight hold, you are assuming liquidity is unchanged. This is a dangerous assumption, and confuses liquidity with marketability.

The system is using ETF’s many of which have a very short history for data.

The current crisis in the credit markets has been in part a liquidity crisis….viz liquidity was a myth, all that existed was limited marketability.

Thus your slippage allowances look a tad low. If you changed them, would that alter the tested results?

jog on
duc

October 5th, 2008 at 11:56 am --4

The response;

Woodshedder Says:

Z-score is a perfectly appropriate measure of whether strings of wins and losses are what can be expected in a random distribution. What Z-score will determine is whether the distribution is non-random.

While stock prices do not conform to a Gaussian distribution, I am not running a Z-score on stock prices. The Z-score is being run on whether a trade is a winner, or a loser. Think coin flip. The high negative correlation of greater than a 99% confidence level shows that winners begat winners, and losers begat losers.

For example, flip a coin 132 times (the number of trades tested for the 8% stop) and tell me how many times within that 132 flips that you get 14 heads in a row, and then later, 15 heads in a row (heads being winners). Sure, if you repeat the experiment enough times, eventually within that 132 flips, you’ll be able to replicate 14 heads in a row, and then another streak of 15 heads in a row. The point is, such long streaks are not random.

I have been trading these ETFs almost exclusively for a year. Scottrade, almost without exception, will give the opening price. Since the system has been tested using opening prices, I do not see slippage being a huge issue, unless the opening price is skewed higher by a large volume of buy orders from traders all trying to trade this system.

Even slippage of .5% on every trade, which has never been observed in real-time, yields a CAGR of 23%. Again, let me re-emphasize that the opening price is being used for testing. Even if the price closed higher the day before, and gapped down the morning of our entry or exit, that type of movement is already factored into the equation. We expect that a lot of exits will have been triggered with an RSI2 over 80, but in actuality, will be recorded with an RSI2 of under 80, due to a gap down. There is a rather large zone of profitability with RSI2. Yes, 80 is optimum for some systems, but 70 will work too, as will 90.

Many of these ETFs are trading well over 5 million shares a day. I really do not see how liquidity is an issue.

October 5th, 2008 at 1:33 pm +0

Z-scores are designed to to create standard units.

Z-score is a perfectly appropriate measure of whether strings of wins and losses are what can be expected in a random distribution. What Z-score will determine is whether the distribution is non-random.

So what are you comparing your strings of wins/losses to? What data [apart from aforementioned] are you trying to standardise?

While stock prices do not conform to a Gaussian distribution, I am not running a Z-score on stock prices. The Z-score is being run on whether a trade is a winner, or a loser. Think coin flip. The high negative correlation of greater than a 99% confidence level shows that winners begat winners, and losers begat losers.

This is where we diverge. Comparing winning to losing trades seems to be irrelevant. The reason I say that is because the market data that you are using for the ETF's is all current. At the very least, for a Z-score you would need to compare current data to say 2000-2001 data. Many of the ETF's are only recent additions.

Second, while I agree that dependency in price data is a fact, I'm not sure that dependency in winning/losing is. That would seemingly fit an independent observation, as you state, it is not market price data that you are analysing.

For example, flip a coin 132 times (the number of trades tested for the 8% stop) and tell me how many times within that 132 flips that you get 14 heads in a row, and then later, 15 heads in a row (heads being winners). Sure, if you repeat the experiment enough times, eventually within that 132 flips, you’ll be able to replicate 14 heads in a row, and then another streak of 15 heads in a row. The point is, such long streaks are not random.

But now you are talking about "price data" I agree that "price" is dependent however, earlier you stated that price data was not the source of the data.

Colour me confused.

Beyond the pragmatic is the psychological view - what values do we look for in times of anxiety? Do we focus on value brands to reassure ourselves we are being economical, or go for comfort brands? Will we be looking for longevity, or making short term decisions to batten down the hatches while the storm passes?

I might suggest that brands consider Freud's pain/pleasure principle here - that we work far harder to avoid pain than we do in the pursuit of pleasure.  So, brands that promise protection from pain should be more desirable than those that offer us comfort and pleasure - maybe with the possible exception of brewers!

The question is why Sweden, as a brand name in general, our regions and most of our tourism attractions in particular, still are more or less unknown to most people abroad according to a number of market analyzes. I believe there are lot´s of possibilities for improvement of Swedish tourism marketing. But, unfortunately, problems are built into the system.

Tourism marketing doesn´t really fit in to traditional marketing models, for a number of reasons. One is that nobody “owns” the whole product – in this case a chain of services, consumed by the guest in the very same moment(s) it´s being produced by a lot of different people and companies providing ingredients for an outstanding travel-related experience.

Swedish micro tourism businesses cannot simply afford the costs required for effective marketing. So, except for some DMC´s and VisitSweden, tourism marketing has become an issue for the local tourism information centres. Who are employed by the local community. They don´t own the tourism attractions or enterprises they are supposed to market. They are also expected to make sure that everyone involved get a fair share of the marketing, as it´s paid by tax money.

Consequently, they can do market research, strategic plans and general marketing but are very limited when it comes to implementation of marketing strategies on an operational level. So they work primarily on the supply-side, putting together ads, brochures and tourism websites, PR and events. Expensive and long-term. Then there´s the political aspect. Tourist information centres are often seen by local politicians as a shopfront for attracting new businesses and citizens to their town, which is a complete different story.

What to do?
Well, considering the organizational circumstances it´s not easy to get the show on the road. Too many chiefs and not enough Indians. The Swedish Institute, VisitSweden and other national bodies are doing an important job, but to get a leverage effect I believe we need the locals on board.

Where applicable, I´d suggest a market oriented perspective, based on market demand:

• Separate tourism business administration and the public economy. Be loyal to the market, not society.
• Forget about the equal fairness thoughts. Promote selected local “honey-pots” and allow them to grow by employing or incorporate suppliers.
• Educate or relocate incoming tour producers to your region.
• Use more of relationship marketing methods, including customer databases with in-depth client information and dialogue with guests.
• Use modern tourism statistics and communication tools. Not only traditional guestnights and passenger-figures from visitors. Measure those who thought about coming, but never showed up.
• Use internet better. Today, anyone can be a virtual tourist. Google Earth, Skype-cast, blogs, online movies, internet-TV and radio offers a range of possibilities for promoting a destination at low cost.

Next time I´ll let you in on some successful examples.

/ Curt Landin

[Derived from William Bergquist and Agnes Mura, Ten Themes and Variations for Postmodern Leaders and Their Coaches. and from a forthcoming book, William Bergquist and Agnes Mura, Building an Appreciative Organization: Themes and Strategies for Effective Postmodern Leaders, Consultants and Coaches. For information on both books contact Pacific Soundings Press, P. O. Box 70, Harpswell, Maine 04079.]

 Theme: The Postmodern Condition

 Fundamental Question

What are the paradoxes, whip lashing contradictions and dizzying changes of which our world is made, and how might an appreciative perspective assist in responding to the challenges of this postmodern condition?

Many 21^st Century societies today are faced with three challenging conditions. First, they are guided by a fragmented and often paradoxical image of their present condition and their future condition. Their present condition includes both a strong trend toward globalization and an equally strong trend toward localization. We live in a world that challenges us to be aware of and interact with other people and cultures throughout the world – Thomas Friedman’s flat world—while also challenging us to retain our local customs and loyalties (a new form of tribalism) leading to what Robert Bellah and his colleagues describe as isolating “life style enclaves.”

Second, we are faced with what Frederick Jameson identifies as the condition of “troubling ambiguity.” Boundaries of all sorts are being shattered or are shifting in unpredictable ways – boundaries between work and home, between countries, between private and public lives, between being inside an organization and being affiliated loosely with an organization.

Third, leadership is being defined in new ways—the old distinction between the task-oriented leader and the people-oriented leader is no longer sufficient, given the other postmodern challenges facing contemporary organizations and societies. Leaders are successful to the extent that they can embrace a broad repertoire of strategies and serve as learners (not just sources of wisdom), risk-takers and entrepreneurs (not just fight leaders) and servants of a compelling image of the future (not just visionaries).

Given the postmodern interplay between globalization and localization, we can expect many leaders to simultaneously play on the global stage and the local stage. We can also expect them to be deeply embedded in their own organization (as a new neighborhood) while seeking to retain a viable family and community life. The boundaries between work and home are inevitably blurred, leaving little time, in many instances, for leaders to reflect or plan ahead. These postmodern conditions confront the leader with challenges that require both courage and insight. If leadership is situational, coaching and consulting programs are called upon to provide leadership development of the most customized and “just-in-time” kind.

The Postmodern Revolution

I cannot remember exactly when I first encountered the term postmodernism. I probably reacted to it in much the same way as I did to the various other “isms” that have come and gone over the past couple of decades, hoping that it would disappear under the weight of its own incoherence or simply lose its allure as a fashionable set of ‘new ideas.’ But it seemed as if the clamour of postmodernist arguments increased rather than diminished with time. Once connected with poststructuralism, postindustrialism, and a whole arsenal of other ‘new ideas,’ postmodernism appeared more and more as a powerful configuration of new sentiments and thoughts.

 - David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity

As leaders we are entering a changing world of relationships and ideas. It is often called “the postmodern revolution.” The postmodern world is in the midst of being born. It does not yet have clear definition, other than its origins in and difference from the modern era. Hence the name postmodern. It is still defined with reference to its mother (modernism) rather than having broken off as a free and independent movement or set of ideas and images with its own distinctive name. Even though postmodernism is young and therefore still filled with superficial, facile and often internally contradictory analyses, it cannot be dismissed, for these analyses offer insightful and even essential perspectives and critiques regarding an emerging era.

In the postmodern camp there is neither the interest in the systematic building of theory, nor the interest in warfare between competing paradigms. Rather everything is pre-paradigmatic,  i.e. there is an attempt to live and function without the scaffolding of paradigms of thought. One of the reasons for such a divestiture is seemingly the sheer impossibility of “knowing.” Tom Peters acknowledges that in the early 1980s he knew something about how organizations achieved excellence. By the late 1980s, he discovered that he was mistaken. Many of the excellent organizations of the early 1980s became troubled institutions by the late 1980s.

Other theorists and social observers have been similarly humbled by the extraordinary events of the 1980s and 1990s. They just haven’t been as forthcoming (or opportunistic) as Tom Peters.

“Postmodernism at its deepest level,” notes Andreas Huyssen, “represents not just another crisis within the perpetual cycle of boom and bust, exhaustion and renewal, which has characterized the trajectory of modernist culture.” Rather, the postmodern condition “represents a new type of crisis of that modernist culture itself.” Many futurists (especially those who focus on the environment) similarly speak of a crisis-of-crises. This crisis-of-crises and the ambiguity, the paradoxes and the irony that accompany this era of grand questioning are founded in the interplay between globalization and localization and, even more fundamentally, in the interplay between order and chaos as we are beginning to understand them. We turn in our next essays to a more in-depth analysis of these crisis-of-crises.

Leadership and Love, I thought, would be the two most powerful ideas that can transform our gloomy world. Two words. Twin words. For truly a leader must be compelled by love if he must lead and lovers compelled to lead if he must love. Imagine that power.

A quick look at the search engines indicate that life, love, and leadership are not just prevalent subjects. They are ubiquitous! In August, a Mumbai-based blogger wrote on exactly the same theme: LIFE, LOVE, and LEADERSHIP.

I then realized how universal the themes life, love, and leadership could be. They are never outmoded. Never outfashioned. Never out. All the more men and women should be writing about it. Talking about it. Dreaming about it. Until that day when life won't just be about crises but also opportunities, when love permeates every motivation and action, and leaders lead with the character and competence required in a fast changing world.

I'm a young management consultant based in Manila, Philippines. I travel in different cities to keynote conferences and facilitate training programs. I speak to thousands of people each year, uncertain if I really make a difference, whether they actually listen and they actually care.

In this weblog, my aim is not to deepen my uncertainty but to broaden my platform for delivering my snippets: random views, trivial invocations, and possibly, unpopular positions on leadership excellence, team synergy, and personal success. Sometimes, on anything under the sun, and over.

I invite you to join me as I articulate my two cent's worth. To the hardworking professional, the gutsy entrepreneur, and the boss who wants to be a lifelong learner of excellence...this weblog is for us. For the passionate athlete, the earnest scholar, housewifes and housebands, welcome aboard. We all need to grow.

Lehman Brothers and Freddie Mac, to name but a few, have been the latest victims of the economic slaughterhouse.

As small business owners reading the news about how major corporations are going broke sends a chill down your spine.

How do you stop this from happening to your business? What strategies do you follow in order to survive these turbulent times? How do you keep focus on building your business and ensuring that you retain your customers? How do you keep the bottom line in the black?

Here are five mission critical strategies you need to incorporate in your day-to-day business activities

1)   Customer Acquisition and Retention

The customer has always been King – however now the customer is god.

You need to ensure that every single customer on your books knows that they are valued by your business and that you will do everything in your power to keep them happy. In the same breath you also need to actively engage in finding new customers and winning them over to your business.

Take time out of your day to brainstorm with your staff on what advertising and marketing strategies they think will help you attract and acquire new clients. Do not neglect your existing client base though. They have been faithful in the past and will be faithful now if you remain sensitive to their needs. This applies to all forms of business.

2)   Keep it Lean and Mean

Get rid of the dead weight in your business model.

Identify the slackers on your staff and encourage them to become more efficient and effective with the time they spend at your business. Discontinue campaigns that no longer justify the energy that is being invested in them. Apply ROI – Return on Investment – to every single facet of your business. Do the numbers and see what the results are. 

Identify flaws within your own business habits and see how you can allocate your time in a more efficient and effective manner. As the team leader you need to be a shining example to those around you.

3)   Cash is King

Credit is a killer. Don’t finance someone else’s spending habits if you do not have the cash flow to fund your business’ operations

Encourage your customers to pay cash by offering cash discounts.  If your industry does not allow this kind of model offer discounts for early payment. Alternatively ask for a 30%,40% or 50% deposit. This is critical especially on goods with low margins.

Consider developing an aspect of your business into a Cash Cow. In the short run a Cash Cow will give your business the lifeblood it needs to survive – especially when your debtors are not meeting their payments. In the long run a Cash Cow can help you build up spare funds to enable research and engage in marketing efforts that may only offer long term benefits but will help build your brand.

4)   Take the long view

History  repeats itself.

Make the effort to read case studies on similar economic situations that have afflicted your industry in the past. Analyze what those business owners did in order to ensure that they remained in business. Determine how what they did is relevant to your business and implement those strategies.

Every business is unique. However there is a golden thread that runs through all businesses. It will be worth your while to look beyond your own industry and see what business owners in other industries are doing to bolster their business and to ensure that they keep growing and prospering.

5)   In Unity there is Strength

No man is an island and that statement rings so true in the turbulent times we face.

Look beyond yourself for solutions. Seek advice and seek alliances. Pride is a liability and will cost your business dearly. If you are not a member yet, join your local chamber of commerce. Actively seek opportunities to network with individuals that share your vision and passion. Share ideas, concerns and strategies. Networking is not handing out a business card. Engage with other business owner by showing a real interest.

The natural tendency in times of crises is to take as much of the cake for yourself instead of seeing how you can enlarge the cake.

Our advice

Keep focus by analyzing what the key challenges are that your business faces. Analyze what challenges you face in your personal life. Rally your staff, clients, friends, and family behind a united front. Get as many passionate players on your team because on Match Day victory will go to those who are willing to bleed for the inches. 

Easy to use and follow lesson plans and some nice printables for working with your kids at home

for stimulating gestural communication with music on themes the kids prefer..

In spite of what's going on, are insurance companies still a viable alternative for safety of your money while providing competitive returns?

“Reality: A gang of brutal facts killing a beautiful theory.” —Variation of Thomas Huxley

Short selling bans are stupid, unsupported political plays.

There, I said it.

I don’t often go really far to one side of an issue, but when politicians spend so much time trying to shoot a gnat off of an elephant’s behind, I get kind of cranky. Especially when the elephant is about to run over some of the things that we hold dear (like free markets, availability of credit, true price discovery, etc.).

The bottom line is that short selling—yes, even naked short selling—had no significant role in the fall of stocks. In fact, documented arguments are being made that the lack of short selling has made things worse due to reduced liquidity. When you can’t make a two-way market, volume drops.

Take Merrill Lynch (NYSE:MER) for example. On Monday (9/29) when its shares were tanking along with all of the financial stocks and the broader market (more on this below) the volume traded for the day was 38 million shares—20% fewer shares than its average volume for the last 50 days!!

Before the short selling ban, on a big market moving day like September 12^th and 15^th , MER traded 200 and 250 million shares a day. Talk about sucking the liquidity OUT of the system at a time when it needs all of the liquidity it can get.

Basically, the short selling has not helped at all. Despite the ban (or maybe because of it), when the markets had their big drop on Monday (9/29), the S&P 500 was down 7.8% (as measured by the ETF, SPY). On the same day with all of that “short selling protection”, financial stocks (as measured by the ETF, XLF) were down 13.2%. Some protection. Like wearing a flak jacket made out of Play-Doh.

Yes, the “brutal facts” have killed the “beautiful theory” that if we just stopped all of that “evil” short selling, then the financial stocks would fare better.

Mark Hulbert had an excellent article in the Sunday New York Times about the actual research that has been done on short selling even during this credit contraction.

One telling fact—while short selling of Lehman was still possible, its stock had a day with the high of $14.15 and a low of $7.79. The average price for short sales on that day was $9.29—in the bottom quarter of the pricing range. So shorts weren’t driving the stock down as the “beautiful theories” suggest, but we were hopping on for profits after the move was almost done. They were using, not causing downward momentum.

As for “naked” short selling (where there are no shares to borrow), the same article tells that before the ban, almost no large financial stocks had naked selling reported (meaning that those stocks did not appear on the “failure to deliver” lists).

But far be it for the politicos or regulators to take a look at the research and the facts.

I believe in the power of free markets. A ban on short selling just can’t be justified by facts--it can only be justified in trying to find emotional scapegoats.

If we want to add regulation, how about going back to realistic leverage rules? If firms could not go above 12:1 leverage on the mortgage related investments that proved to be poison, it’s highly likely that few or none of the storied financial institutions that we read about would have failed. The regulators changing the rules to allow significantly more leverage is the story that is getting far too little play.

But oh, those greedy short sellers let’s get them—swat a few gnats. Yes they may be greedy, but no more greedy than the buyers who bought these financial stocks and speculative real estate (or a bigger house than they could afford) when they thought real estate prices could only go up. Okay, I’ll climb down off the soapbox (for now!).

Here are some thoughts on day trading and swing trading in the ultra volatile markets. For day traders—enjoy! Wider stops and smaller size is needed, of course, but not just for the volatility. At important stretch points, prices are exploding up or down when those support and resistance levels are violated. Slippage in the Russell and the Nasdaq futures in particular are as much as 5 - 10 ticks. The liquidity of the S&P 500 offers good protection against this.

For swing traders, this volatility is extremely tough to navigate. Strategies, models and systems have not seen broad market 48 point Average True Range (ATR) readings before. And even when using ATR based indicators, most intermediate time frame (10 – 20 day) indicators are too slow to respond, causing whipsaws on both the up and down sides. There is no penalty for standing aside while the smoke clears! Until next week...

Great Trading,

D. R.

About D.R. Barton: A passion for the systematic approach to the markets and lifelong love of teaching and learning have propelled D.R. Barton, Jr. to the top of the investment and trading arena. He is a regularly featured guest on both Report on Business TV, and WTOP News Radio in Washington, D.C., and has been a guest on Bloomberg Radio. His articles have appeared on SmartMoney.com and Financial Advisor magazine. Visit D.R.'s web site at www.smarttradepro.com and sign up for his free report "Paper Trading Stinks."

Gavin Stephenson Here calling from the London UK Back with some More exciting information to get your business moving

Today, in my video, we are going to look at (Starting a Free Online Business) and using free marketing methods to generate targeted visitor to make you money.

But before we go into that I just want to tell you abit about myself I am 22 years of age. WAITT! I know what your thinking what does a 22 year old no about business and making money online "How Can This Guy Ever HELP Me!"

Well the simple fact is I have been online for about a year and I went in to debt trying to get rich quick. I was wondering why am i not seeing the results that the gurus had, and then my Journey Began!

I Used simple laws to attract people and events into my life. I learned bits and pieces from Mike Dillard, Joe Schroeder, Ben Deridge, Robert Sams and my mentor Danny Arrington.

Once the picture was all put together for me I could see clearly exactly what I need to do to see results.

Want To Keep Up On All The New Trends:
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*Here are some top tips for You*

• 1. Brand Yourself (NOT YOUR BUSINESS)
• 2. Become a Solution to your marketing
• 3. Give away more in Value than you take in cash ever recieved.

Let me explain a little more:

1. Brand Yourself.. This Is Critical for a number of reasons. The main reason is people buy from people! It doesn't matter how good your product is. Nobody will join and you will have BIG Problem Recruiting and Selling because the market place would rather buy and join someone that they like, know and trust!!

2. Are You Solving Problems In Your Marketing.. People have problems and if your the solution your market your going to have trouble keeping customers from flying your way.

3. Give Away Value. This Universe is made of energy even YOU! Guess what? Energy can not be destroyed or created. So As You Give Away Something Its Going To Come Back to you. If I was to Show TONS OF LOVE I would get TONS of LOVE BACK. "What Goes Around Comes Around"

So if you can figure out how to give away $10,000 in useful free value your going to make it back easy, WHY? Because I said so :-)

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Realising this wasn't going to help me create long-term wealth, I had to change my thinking and habits. Here's the steps I took:

1. Get a bigger goal. Forking out small amounts of cash on coffees, magazines and movies soon adds up. Have a larger target of something really cool - something you've always wanted. Decide on an item or activity that makes you grin in anticipation.

2. Start a list. Whenever you see something that brings the "Oooohhh - I simply must have that!" reaction, stop yourself right there. Be strong. Don't make the impulse purchase, instead write the details on a list. If one month later you still want the item (and you're happy to spend the money, which otherwise could have gone to your bigger goal) then go for it. I found this 'cooling off' period awesome - most items weren't anywhere near as appealing one month later.

3. Get creative. If you know you're prone to impulse buys, how can you support yourself to change the habit? I've heard of people keeping their credit card frozen in a block of ice in the freezer. By the time they've thawed out the card, the money-hungry feeling has passed and they look at the purchase far more objectively. Could you enlist the help of a friend as 'board member' and adjudicator for your spending?

4. Chart your progress. I'm a visual person, so I created a 'thermometer' of financial progress, charting my savings as it grew towards my big goal target. Nothing helps determination like small-goal success!

5. Clear the clutter. By working out what you actually do own, it's much easier to decide what is worth purchasing. Is there anything you can sell or pass on to clear your physical (and mental) space? My rules of thumb for anything coming into my house: Do I need it? Do I love it? Do I have to dust it?

Managing the temptation is awesome. Try it!

–//–

Stuart Fleming

The Wealth Expert for Teens

www.stuartfleming.com

Even if only in a brief campaign ad, its an important banner to raise.

Other's thoughts here, here and here.

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