I was devastated! I just couldn't believe it. I was 10 years old and my dreams were shattered. I never wanted to look at another model airplane again! But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning. When I was about 8 years old my older brother got interested in model airplanes. He had one that was connected to a control handle by fine wires. It flew around in circles whilst he stood in the middle controlling it. [This was just before radio-controlled planes became popular - that's showing my age!...

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If you were to find that you had some severe illness that required surgery, would you attempt to perform that surgery upon yourself? What if your car broke down and needed a valve job? Would you get out the Craftsman tool set you got for Christmas three years ago and start tinkering under the hood even though you know absolutely nothing about engines? Of course you wouldn't do either of these things because there are times in life when we know we must seek the assistance of a professional. So why is it that so many people try to make their own investment decisions without consulting a professional stock broker?...

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How can you dispel an illusion unless you look directly at it? The magician distracts the eye with one hand while he does his manipulation with the other. You are looking in the wrong place and not seeing what is actually happening. Wall Street has mastered this move even beyond the wildest dreams of Houdini. Investors have become so mesmerized by the smoke and mirrors that they believe the large brokerage houses are telling them the truth. One of their master distractions has you believing that research is necessary to be able to pick a winning stock or mutual fund....

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Who are the successful investors? There are those who follow the advice of their brokers and financial planners or those who choose to use their own good judgment? If you care to compare the results of the past 4 years from 2000 to now I believe you will see who as done the best job. In the old days at the Chicago stock yards they used to have an old sheep who led the lambs to the slaughter when they arrived on the train. It seems there were lots of investment sheep in 2000 that followed the advice of their brokers and financial planners and were slaughtered....

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It has often been said that there is only two ways to get hurt really bad on a stock trade, getting caught in a "death spiral" by not using DTM: Decisive Trade Management in the way of stop loses and having a stock halted on you. Halts you have zero control over. Death spirals are of your own making if you do not practice the use of stop loses. Capital Preservation It is my firm belief that capital preservation is one of, if not the single most important thing a trader has to concentrate on. It is also my belief that it is always better to error on the side of safety or caution, in general this all comes under DTM: Decisive Trade Management....

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The stock market has not been very kind to your investments lately. Your broker knows this so you may have received a call from him suggesting it is time to 'rebalance and diversify' your portfolio. What does this really mean? He wants you to sell some of your holdings and buy something else. Probably sell stocks and buy bonds "because of market uncertainty". Sounds good, but it really means he needs some commission and you are "it". Yes, I agree it may be time to sell all your stocks and mutual funds and put everything in a money market account until this bear market is over....

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If you go to Haiti or other places in the Caribbean you may run into the Voodoo tradition of magic. There are long and mostly noisy rituals with the medicine man spouting words that bring great power and conjure up whatever it is the supplicant desires. Great amounts of smoke and mirrors. Does this remind you of anything? I hear the mesmerizing words of my broker telling me about a wonderful stock. He produces multicolored charts and graphs that dazzle my eyes. His chanting is "BUY, BUY, BUY"...

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I read a comment by a forum member on another site earlier today that suggested that every investor should back test their system for at least twenty years. I disagree and will now tell you why. Back testing and paper trading seem to be the most over emphasized techniques offered by market theorists, educational elite, market novices and/or market fakes. While learning the pure basics, I can see why a novice investor may want to paper trade; to see the results of the developing system but I will warn that these results are completely false....

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Many people would like to diversify their portfolios to expand their holdings. Making it big in the stock market has been a dream for many people who want to strike it rich. Many movies and books have been made portraying the ins and outs of the stock market, for some, dealing with the stock market can be very complex and complicated. There are many things needed to be understood and learned. In this article, a short overview will be provided to better understand the stock market and see the stock market is an option you would like to try....

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Three little pigs went to the market to stockup for the future. The first little pig liked chips so he went tothe DOW market. He was told by everyone youcould always rely on their products. They werealways good. The manager told him you could putthem away and forget about them. The second little pig liked spicy things. Heshopped at the NASDAQ market where they hadunusual products. He said that his purchaseswere good to put away even though they had somestrange ingredients. He took his home and saidhe did not need to worry about them even thoughothers had told him to be careful....

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Four blind men were asked to give a description of an elephant. They had not seen one or ever encountered such a beast. One grabbed hold of its tail. Another put his arms around a leg. The third gripped its trunk and the fourth walked into the side. The description given by each one was correct and accurate except it did not describe the elephant's true form. Each man was right and each man was wrong. We now have some equally blind men trying to describe what is happening in our economy and the stock market - economists, brokers, bankers and financial planners....

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