[jeffy]

Hope this doesnt sound like "advertising" but check out VectorVest. They have a short term trial for like $9. A year is like 500. I use them for trading. They are great at calling up and down markets. For instance, they went down market 1 nov 07, up market 3 april 08, down market 11 june 08.

They rank over 4000 stocks. When they call an up market I go long their top 10 VST stocks and long in my mutual fund account. When they call a down market I short their "worst stocks over $20 with 500k volumn" and go into cash in my mutual fund account.

I know that a lot of people frown on shorting , but the market tends to go down much faster than it goes up.

If you are into reading , the best investment book I ever read is "Reminences of a Stock Operator". It is the life story of a stock trader that was born over 100 years ago.

I would never take a hot tip from an individual. A very good friend of mine had a sister that worked for a large company in Baltimore in 2000. His sister told him that she had insider info that their company was about to be taken over. He invested 100k of his own money and borrowed several 100k from his father. Well the takeover never happened and he foolishly watched the stock go from about 80 to 3. Last I heard he was never able to pay his father back. I dont think this family was ever the same again.

Best advice I can give is never let a stock go against you over 10%. When I have an order filled, I immediately set that 10% stop loss in and DONT change it. Some times you hate that you did it ( Last month I was short UBS with my 10% stop loss, It stopped me out by .02 cents and then raced down in my favor). But it is the only way from burning up your account.

Any other VectorVest users out their. We should start a club. Right now the closest clubs are in Orlando and Tampa I believe.

jeffy