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Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Top Stocks To Buy For 2010

I only have two things to say on this first day of trading: Happy New Year and to buy stocks for 2010.

Last year was certainly one to forget. Now, a change of presidential administration, an emerging trough in stock prices of 2010, and the growing investor confidence that comes with a new year. . . means it's time to get back on the horse and start to buy energy stocks.

A second economic stimulus is coming down the pike. It will likely be ready to sign when Mr. Obama takes office. And it will lob about $850 billion at projects to create jobs and spur spending.

Most notably, the coming stimulus will focus on updating our severely outdated electricity grid. An article I wrote last week for Green Chip Review hones in on investment opportunities arising from a smart grid transition.

With these top stocks to buy about to take off, I thought this piece would be of interest to Energy & Capital readers as well.

Enjoy.

I've been talking about the smart grid for well over a year now.

Two Novembers ago, I wrote about three companies doing business in the realm of energy efficiency, which now goes by the pet name 'smart grid.'

As it happens, I may have had my prognosticating dial set a year too early.

Those three companies got swallowed up by the financial tsunami that was 2008, losing more than half their value, which is even worse than the Dow and the S&P. Here's the chart:

smart grid stocks

Now, 2009 is being hailed as the year of the smart grid. It may be too early to tell, but with a change in administration, a renewed focus on energy efficiency, and continued tightness in the credit markets, things are looking good when it comes to investing in the smart grid in 2010.

What is The Smart Grid?

As I've written many times, there is really no single way to define the smart grid. It basically comes down to overlaying the power delivery system with an information system that allows a utility and its consumers to constantly monitor and adjust electricity use.

Right now, the process of getting electricity to your house from the generation point is antediluvian. All you know is that the electricity is on. You're happy as long as the drinks are cold and the TV is on.

The same holds true for the utility. In fact, they usually aren't aware of a power outage until they receive calls from their customers. Even then, they aren't able to pinpoint the source of an outage without sending out an entire crew.

It's primitive. But it's changing. And this change is going to be profitable.

Smart Grid Potential

The benefits of a fully functioning smart grid are innumerable.

One of the earliest to emerge is a niche smart grid segment called demand response. Demand response is the voluntary reduction of electricity demand in response to grid instability, high wholesale prices, or peak load.

Companies involved in this sector—like Comverge (NASDAQ: COMV) and EnerNOC (NASDAQ: ENOC)—aggregate electricity by reducing demand at thousands of end-use customer sites to provide significant and immediate megawatt capacity when high peak demand compromises grid stability.

So, for example, all the homes in your neighborhood could be part of an EnerNOC program that voluntarily reduces demand from your heaters and air conditioners when the grid needs excess capacity. Of course, you're entitled to compensation for that service, and could either receive a check or a reflective discount on your utility bill.

This type of program is going to be commonplace in a few years. It's beneficial because during times of peak demand, utilities can pull from the grid instead of turning on a coal- or natural gas-fired peaking plant. Not only are those plants expensive to run, they're emissions will also have rising costs as a cap-and-trade scheme is established to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

That's just for starters!

Other companies are engineering products that allow consumers to monitor every aspect of their home's energy use. . . even when they're not home.

Start-ups like Greenbox—from the guy who brought us Flash—are taking a networking approach to the smart grid, designing systems that allow you to turn on your dishwasher from a remote location, when you know the electricity price is cheapest. You can also turn your lights on and off and adjust your thermostat to maximize efficiency.

For utilities, the advent of wireless communication embedded in substations, transformers, and other power management equipment will mean increased efficiency and reduced costs, as maintenance schedules and warning signals become automated.

Profiting from the Smart Grid

Many companies are in hot pursuit of commercial viability in the smart grid sector. And investors seem to think there is room for plenty of them.

Over the past 10 quarters, smart grid companies raised slightly under $30 million per quarter at the venture level. But last quarter (Q3 2008), a record $202 million flowed into the sector. . .a clear indication of its future profitability.

Leading smart grid recipients of venture capital in the third quarter include:

Gridpoint, $120 million

Trilliant, $40 million

BPL Global, $23 million and

Eka Systems, $18.5 million

On the publicly-traded side, Comverge, EnerNOC, Echelon, and PowerSecure International remain the few pure plays. Exposure can also be had through Itron, GE, Siemens, Honeywell, and Johnson Controls.

But stay cautious. Even though this sector is slated to be hot in 2009, the financial waters are still murky. You have to know which companies stand to offer you the best returns, and then decide when to buy them and sell them.

Simply knowing that smart grid companies are hot isn't enough.

The Alternative Energy Speculator takes all the guesswork out of investing in clean technology. Thousands of readers already enjoy up-to-the-minute updates telling them when to buy and sell best stocks to buy for 2010.

We already have a few smart grid plays in the portfolio, but I'll be adding more to take advantage of their pending popularity in the coming year.

Plus, I'm offering a special year-end discount. Sign-up now and I'll knock $50 off the normal subscription price. And you'll get a free copy of Green Chip's new book, not to mention all the profits that the cleantech sector has to offer

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

China Isnt the Only Currency Manipulator

What a day in the currencies yesterday! Another day of wild swings… Volatility is the name of the game these days… Watching, for instance, the euro (EUR) trade down to 1.4220, and then up to 1.4320 and not just on a one-way ticket! Oh no! This is a bounce here, a bounce there… But just like it was going from 1.41 to 1.42, it took a few times over the 1.42 figure before it finally stuck, and headed to 1.43… All the other currencies followed in the swings, as usual…

In a change of things that have been going on, which was simply watching the Asians sell dollars, and watching the U.S. counterparts buy them… The Asians actually reversed that course last night taking the euro from 1.4320 to 1.4220 as I walked in this morning, which was later than usual… The S. Korean monetary officials said that they "see absolutely no alternative to the dollar as the main reserve currency of the world."

Of course… What else would you say if you were a small country connected to another country that likes to show its military power, and shoot off missiles… Oh, and by the by, they are believed to have nuclear bomb capabilities… You would be kissing up to the U.S. like an intern to their boss, as they attempt to get full time employment!

However, the S. Koreans weren't the only Asian monetary officials to speak… The Indian Central Bank is dying a death of 1,000 daggers watching their currency gain 11% in the past three months! And… Then the Big Kahuna… Japan… But, we all know that the Japanese are the biggest currency manipulators on this earth, and they would do anything to get the yen (JPY) weaker… Speaking of currency manipulating… (Doing an Andy Rooney here) Ever wonder why the U.S. Treasury Secretary and lawmakers all point to China for currency manipulation and don't mention Japan?

Japan was the whipping boy of the U.S. in the '80s… Remember? It was all "their fault"… Skip ahead 20 years and it's now switched to China… Ask Schumer, ask Graham, and any of the other dolts that signed the bill to assign tariffs to Chinese exports, that hangs out on the shelves in D.C. just waiting for the "right time"… Ask them who's at fault here, China or Japan… They'll all tell you China… And never mention Japan.

Speaking of currency manipulation, the Big Boss, Frank Trotter, and I were talking the other day, and we came to a thought about manipulation… The U.S. is quick to find fault with currency manipulation, but isn't the U.S. in the manipulation business too? Aren't they buying Treasuries in their quantitative easing, to keep interest rates down? By buying the treasuries they are manipulating the price of the bond… But, does anyone hear the media calling them out, here? Bawk, Bawk, Bawk… Son! I think I see a chicken hawk!

OK… On to other things… Did you hear Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel talking about quantitative easing? This is like one of those MasterCard commercials… Bundesbank President Axel Weber talking down quantitative easing… very worthy… But Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel talking about it… Priceless!

Why priceless? Because it is a long standing tradition in Germany that the leader of the country never comments on monetary policy… But with the European Central Bank (ECB) looking at ways of doing quantitative easing, she took her shot… And the shot was not just aimed at the ECB… She got three birds with one stone! Throw the Fed and Bank of England in here too… Here's the Chancellor… "Unconventional monetary policies being pursued by the world's main central banks could aggravate rather than ease the economic crisis."

She went on to mention the Fed and Bank of England… Let's listen in… "I view with great skepticism the powers of the Fed, for example, and also how, within Europe, the Bank of England has carved out its own small line," Merkel said. "We must return together to an independent central bank policy and to a policy of reason, otherwise we will be in exactly the same situation in 10 years' time."

You know… Another female leader of a county from times past is responsible for another quote that I use in my presentations… I'll go dig it up, and come right back… Just hum the Jeopardy song for the final question, and I'll be back!

OK! I'm back! Here it is… "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." – Margaret Thatcher…

The Eurozone did get some damaging employment data overnight… The Eurozone unemployment rate hit 9.2% in April, after sitting at 8.9% in March. I know, that sounds bad… But just like I tell you all the time about comparing the dollar and euro's data… The U.S. car is uglier than the euro car… And here's why… I know of NO games that are played with Eurozone employment data, like the games the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) plays here in the United States. So… If the Eurozone says unemployment is 9.2%, it's 9.2%! Whereas here in the U.S., when the BLS says that unemployment this Friday is 9.2%, it won't really be 9.2%; instead it will most likely be closer to 20%!!!!!!

While the Eurozone deals with rising unemployment… Australia posted a better than expected rise in GDP for the last quarter! The last three months showed a rise in GDP of 0.4%, after shrinking 0.6% in the previous quarter! Now… The members of the Reserve Bank of Australia can all breathe a sigh of relief after they left rates unchanged on Monday night! They can walk about like 20-game winners, with their chests sticking out, and their chins in the air! They are dragon slayers!

The news pushed the (AUD) to 0.8260, but profit taking has pushed the Aussie dollar back below 82-cents… But this news will live in the minds of traders for some time, and after the profit taking is over, they will once again take a run at higher levels for the Aussie dollar. Could 85-cents be in the cards in the near future? Could be… But, just as easy as it could go to 85-cents and maybe beyond, it could go the other way… What I'm saying here is that this run from March 1st, is going so fast! It certainly could see it break off, take a breather, go back and fill in the gaps, whatever you want to call it.

I was reading a report yesterday where a trade expert was interviewed regarding the massive bailout of Government Motors (GM)… Claude Barfield, a trade expert at the American Enterprise Institute, believes that the massive bailout of GM "raises the question of whether the subsidies violate President Barack Obama's pledge not to embrace protectionist measures." The intervention "will come back to haunt us in terms of the competitiveness of U.S. corporations and in terms of furthering U.S. public-policy goals."

Well, slowly but surely, more and more people who understand the ramifications of government bailouts are starting to agree with me and speak out against them. Don't you think that over half of the Financial Institutions that took TARP money are wishing they hadn't ever hear of TARP right now? It's a bad thing… Ronald Reagan used to say that the scariest words spoken are…"Hi, I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help."

But these were "abnormal" and they called for "abnormal" right? Isn't that the gobble-de-gook the government tells us, as they jam one measure after another down our throats that takes away free markets, and more importantly our republic… We The People, are soon to be, We The Government…

OK, I know, I'll get a ton of emails telling me to shut my trap, and stick to currencies… But this all has something to do with currencies, folks… Protectionism to a country's currency, the dollar in this case, is like kryptonite to Superman… So, if you want to see your country's currency on the slippery slope to nowheresville, just keep those protectionist measures floating… Because you can't have both… You can't have protectionism and a strong currency (dollar)… One floats, while the other sinks.

In a related story about having one but not both… A reader sent me two charts yesterday… One showed the fall in the U.S. dollar index in the past three months… And the other showed the rise in the stock markets in the same three months… The reader said that it looked to him that someone was saying, "You can either have a weak dollar and strong stock market or vice versa, but you can't have both!" Yes… Just like the protectionism, and a strong dollar… You can't have both!

In a "sign of the times"… The Vehicle Sales for May printed yesterday, and while all the carmakers reported double digit declines of sales, the U.S. automakers outperformed the Japanese automakers!

And then… I know I go to the well quite often when I reprint something from The Daily Reckoning, but it goes both ways, so I don't feel too bad! But, when Bill Bonner, the Mogambo, or someone else says something that I think you need to read, I go for it! So… Yesterday, Bill was talking about U.S. Treasury Sec. Geithner's visit to China… Let's listen in:

"'It will be helpful if Mr. Geithner can show us some arithmetic,' said Yu Yongding, a former advisor to the Chinese central bank.

"Yes, we'd like to see that arithmetic too. How do you add $1.75 trillion in deficits…pay for it with funny money from the Fed…and still come out even on the value of the dollar? There's no arithmetic we know of that works in the Chinese favor. Right now, the numbers…and the logic of the situation…are telling us that feds aim to create inflation. Instead of trying to keep prices under control…they're trying to get them to go up. That's yet another thing we didn't expect to see!

"The US government is less concerned with protecting foreign lenders than it is with getting the US economy back to its old E-Z money ways. Cheap money is what people want. Cheap money is what the feds are trying to give them."

I was looking at some graphs yesterday of the major currencies… Dollar, euro, yen, sterling (GBP), and even Canadian loonies (CAD)… I've told you over and over again that the currencies have all posted gains versus the dollar since March 1st… Well… Euro, sterling and loonies have all outperformed yen. You would have to think that if China is pulling Asia out of the economic meltdown, that Japan would also benefit… So… Maybe, we'll see yen catch up with its major currency counterparts.

Speaking of sterling… Chris Gaffney and I were talking the other day about sterling's rise… I talked about this a couple of weeks ago, and said I was impressed with the performance but wasn't sold on its ability to remain strong… But there it is with a 1.65 handle on it, after hitting a low of 1.35 in February. I still don't "get it" – as the U.K. has the same problems as the U.S. – but, as I told Chris, sterling is probably a beneficiary of the "crosses" with all the currencies that are going up versus the dollar… Explains it a bit, but sterling has put in a very good performance the past three months!

But… The sterling's performance is not even on the same page as the performance of the South African rand (ZAR)… And the Brazilian real (BRL)… Of course, past performance doesn't mean that future performance will repeat itself.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

With Gains Like These, Who Needs the Stock Market?

You know all that stuff we talk about every day in the Whiskey Bar?

The increasing oil scarcity.

The credit contraction.

The inevitable collapse of fiat currency.

Well, it's time to put all those harsh realities to work for you…

With the "Anti-Stock Market."

 

What if I told you there was an Anti-Stock Market?

A market that can never ever go bust.

A market that doesn't care about earnings reports, clever accounting, analysts' upgrades or downgrades.

A market that is totally unrestricted, operates 24 hours a day on a global scale and is 100% immune to dirty CEOs, lies and corruption.

Perhaps best of all, assets in this market are virtually certain never to hit zero. 

And the Upside To the Anti-Stock Market? Virtually Unlimited Profits.

The nastier the stock market gets, the more money readers have the chance to make in the Anti-Stock Market.

For example, just as the poop hit the fan on Wall Street last September, readers closed out a position for 186% gains.

A position they held for just over three months.

What would that 186% mean to your wallet?

It means:

That's almost triple your money in three months!

And this past February they banked 100% returns on a play recommended back in November.

That's another quick double.

And this morning, my readers took 67% on a play held for just two months… that was before 9:30 A.M.!

What do readers think about gains like these? Just take a look…

"Thanks for another amazing trade.  My broker was initially skeptical…now he's amazed at the results we've had in these past 5 months."
— Stephane C.
"I opened a brokerage acct with $15,000…I had absolutely no knowledge about [the Anti-Stock Market]. Since opening the acct I've withdrawn $30,000 and the account value as of today is over $123,000. So as of now I'm up over 10x. Money isn't everything, but all things being equal, I'd rather have some than not." 
— George C.
"The best way that I can say how helpful [the Anti-Stock Market] has been to my trading is to tell you that on January 1st my account was worth $3,366, as of June 30th it is worth $19,395. That's a 576% profit in 6 months."
— Christian H.

So, while everyone else took a whipping in the stock market, readers dove headlong into the Anti-Stock Market.

And they're making money hand over fist.

I'm Talking About 19 Plays In 2008 Averaging 71% Returns — A Year Considered By Most to Be the Worst In Three Generations.

There are no secrets here: that average contains both winners and losers.

And, in case you think that great performance was just a fluke, let me give you a little history. 

We started publishing just over seven years ago.

And the overall average gain for those last seven years?

A staggering 56.3%. Once again including the occasional loser.

To put it another way, if you'd put $1,000 in each of the 212 total plays, you'd have made almost $118,000 in pure profits.

$5,000 in each would have landed you more than $589,000 — over half a million dollars.

Can you imagine making that kind of pure profit money in such a brief period of time?!

Want a piece of the profit action?

How would you like to see $1,000 turn into at least $18,000… or watch $5,000 turn into at least $90,000 in a single year? With virtually no work on your part.  

I'm talking about no less than nine chances to double your money in the next 12 months — guaranteed. But if you want in, I must hear from you by midnight, Wednesday, June 10th.

So, give me just two minutes of your time and I'll tell you everything you need to know to profit from the Anti-Stock Market.

But first, allow me to introduce myself…

This Former "Trash Picker" Can Make You Millions

My name is Alan Knuckman. I grew up in Chicago and started my career as a glorified trash picker working for the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT).

The CBOT was created in 1848 as a centralized exchange for people to buy and sell commodities — it's the world's oldest options exchange.

You see, before people were able to make all of their trades online, brokers wrote their buys and sells on little cards. And once each transaction was done, the floor traders would just toss the cards on the floor and move onto the next one. 

My job? Basically, I spent eight hours a day picking up those trade cards so the clearing house could settle the books at the end of the day.

I was making about $2.85 an hour, in the crowded mayhem of the grains floor at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) — the heart center of the Anti-Stock Market…

It was the worst job. But it was a perfect chance to see capitalism at its finest.

And it was a start. It helped me learn all the ins and outs of profiting from the Anti-Stock Market.

I eventually moved up from garbage picker to floor trader — giving me an inside view of the markets. A view that most investors will never see. And the edge I needed to profit in all market conditions.

Just a few years later, I created a brokerage division specializing in powerful and unique investments where clients would pay $600 — $900 an hour just to talk to me on the phone.

I had developed a trading strategy that balanced discipline and absolute risk-control with the ability to make my clients millions.

Don't get me wrong. The Anti-Stock Market isn't a sure thing.

But I think the track record speaks for itself.

As you've seen, we spend most of our time finding opportunities for our readers to make a lot of money — our gains far outweigh our losses.

Just ask the readers who've already seen 85%, 72%, 67%, 100% and 80% gains so far in 2009:

"As a member…I must say you are really an asset. I have purchased all of your recommendations and could not be more pleased. "
— Raymond G.
"Thank you, Alan, for the great profits this month. I have been [investing] since November 2004 and it has been blessing. Thank you again for all the great profits and wisdom you bring us."
— Rob L.
"I love what you have done…both in learning and profits."
— John M.

Why are these people so pleased?

Well, as you may have figured out already, the Anti-Stock Market is my name for commodity options.

Because you can use these options to make high-powered gains, completely outside the stock market.

Simple, right?

And those happy folks subscribe to my high-powered, commodity options research service, Resource Trader Alert.


Resource Trader Alert Can Double Your Money,Quickly, Safely and Easily With Just A 5-minute Phone Call

Are you ready to profit along with them?

With Resource Trader Alert, it couldn't be easier.

Because I'll tell you everything you need to know, every step of the way, for maximum commodity options profits, with minimum risk.

When I see a play with potential, I'll immediately fire off an email, right to your inbox:

I'll tell you exactly what to buy…

And when it's time to cash out with your profits, I'll fire off another email letting you know it's time to sell.

In other words, I do all the work — you sit back and watch the profits roll in.

All you have to do is read your email and decide if you want to get in on each play.

For example, last February, Resource Trader Alert readers got the following recommendation when they opened their email in the morning.

What do you do after placing the play? Nothing.

Once you get into a play, your "work" is done.

So you can sit back, relax and plan your next vacation while I keep my eyes glued to dozens of social, political, economic and meteorological indicators.

Then, about two and a half months later, it was time to take some sweet profits.

So, Resource Trader Alert subscribers got another simple email.

Resource Trader Alert subscribers could've pocketed 108% profits on a position they held for just six days.

In other words, $1,000 in each play could have turned into $14,040 total.

All without ever buying or selling a single stock.

And that's just since this January.

Plus, we have open positions sitting at 77%, 102% and 104% as I type this letter.

That's why I feel confident offering you an unheard of profit guarantee: you'll see no less than nine chances to double your money in the next 12 months.

Yup, imagine making at least double your money nine times in a year…

Imagine what you could do with all that dough…

How can I be so sure you'll take gains like these in the next year?

"Thanks for the great tips. I made over $8000 in less than 4 days. Cheers!"
— Kent K.
"Just a brief note to thank you. I am up over 200% since I started."
— Phyllis B.

Of course, never, not once, did we try to make these gains messing with top stocks for 2010.

Why?

Because the time for playing the stock market is over. If you want to see consistent triple-digit gains, it's time to move your money into the Anti-Stock Market.

Double Your Money Nine Times A Year with the Anti-Stock Market

As you know, top stocks had their day in the sun.  It was a long and respectable run.

But that run is over and I'll show you the proof.

"Buy low, sell high" was the winning ticket for a long time. But that strategy only works if your company's stock is guaranteed to go up.

And these days there are no such guarantees.

Meanwhile, Resource Trader Alert has averaged nine triple-digit gainers every year since 2002.

That means you could have doubled your money (or better) every six weeks!

Imagine turning nine $1,000 investments into a grand total of $18,000.

Or up the ante to $5,000 and you'd be sitting on $90,000. In just one year.

What's more, I can tell you from experience that readers have used the Anti-Stock Market to outperform every major fund and index since 2002.

I'm not talking about a couple percentage points, here. I'm talking about a chance at serious money.  

As you see, Resource Trader Alert's "Anti-Stock Market" plays stomped all over the S&P500 for seven years running.

In fact, if you'd put your money in the S&P500 back in January of 2002, you'd have made a -1% return at the end of 2008. Of course, when you consider inflation, it's an even bigger loss…

Meanwhile, on the average, Anti-Stock Market plays have delivered annual returns of over 56% in that same time — 212 plays between 2002 and today.

Let me ask you a stupid question:

Would you rather turn $5,000 into $4,950… a $50 loss?

Or would you prefer to see your $5,000 grow into $7,800?

If you'd put $5,000 into every play published, both winners and losers, you'd have made about $589,000 — well over half a million dollars — in pure profits.

The Power of Options Means Unbelievable Double and Triple-digit Profits from the Anti-Stock Market

Options are a powerful investment. They're a way of making boat-loads of money with just small movements in a commodity's price.

If we think the price of a commodity is going up, we recommend call options. While, if we think a price is headed down, we recommend put options.

It's really that easy.

For now, what's important is that playing options means that you have a chance to make money whether a commodity's price goes up or down.

For example, on February 6, 2008, readers were alerted to buy sugar calls. Like I said, call options make money when the price of an asset goes up.

And over the course of just 20 days the price of sugar went up — from $11.87 to $14.

That's a price movement of only $2.13… a gain of about 18%.

But the lucky readers who got in on this play made 195% in less than three weeks.

That means the money-multiplying power of options turned.

How would you like to triple your money in under a month with only about 10 minutes of "work"? But you can also profit when the price of an asset drops.

On December 9, 2005, readers were alerted to buy cattle puts. Remember, put options make us money when the commodity's price goes down.

And down they went.

In just about three months the price of cattle dropped from $92 to $86.76. That's a price movement of just $5.24 and a tiny 6% loss.

But readers who used the power of options and the Anti-Stock Market took 93% gains on that same price movement.

Not too shabby.

And best of all, you can never lose more than the price of an options contract.

That means you always know exactly how much is at stake — it's 100% in your control.

Don't worry if this sounds a little new. Because, the moment you sign up to start receiving Resource Trader Alert I will send you a FREE copy of, Playing Commodities Options Like a Champion.

In it, I'll show you the ins and outs of profiting from the Anti-Stock Market.

But I don't think you'll need it. Because each and every recommendations is spelled out in extremely easy-to-follow terms.

Terms you can read to a broker, over the phone, in about five minutes, if you want in on the action. You can even get into these plays online with just a few clicks of the mouse.

I'll be with you every step of the way… through winners and losers alike.

But we don't see too many losers around here.

In fact, Resource Trader Alert readers have seen about nine money-doubling plays a year since 2002.

And if I hear from you by midnight on June 10th, I tell you how to pull in at least nine triple-digit gainers of your own in the next 12 months — guaranteed.

The "Experts" Called 2008 the Worst Year for Investors In More than A Generation Yet, Readers Had A Chance to Stuff Their Wallets On 15 Out of 19 Plays

And our average gains for the year? An astonishing 71%.

What would that have meant to your account?

Well, if you had put $1,000 into every play published last year — both winners and losers — you'd have made about $13,500 in total profits.

While $5,000 in each play would have you sitting on almost $67,500.

In just one year.

Was it just a fluke? Hell no…

Since 2002 Resource Trader Alert has Picked 159 Winners Out of 212 Total Plays That's An Unbelievable 74% Success Rate

So what do you think?

Ready to double your money (or better) at least nine times in the next 12 months?

Since Resource Trader Alert first launched, in 2002, readers have seen triple-digit gains, on the average, about every six weeks.

That's an average of nine triples a year.

And it means, if your average investment is $1,000, you'd be sitting on at least $18,000 at the end of the year.

Put $5,000 into each of my suggestions, and you could be looking at over $90,000… just 12 months later.

There isn't a single market, index or fund that can brag nine chances to deliver 100% returns (or more!) in a year.

If it sounds like I'm bragging, that's because I am.

But in just a minute, I'll put my money where my mouth is and show you how you can grab nine doublers for yourself — guaranteed.

More on that in a minute… for now, just take a look at the chart below… the numbers don't lie!

As you can see, in 2008, a year considered by most to be the single worst since the Depression Era, Resource Trader Alert readers averaged 71% returns.

And even in 2004, our "worst" year, Resource Trader Alert subscribers still saw 35% annual gains and 10 opportunities to double their money — including two plays that hit 270% and 285%.

Of course, 2009 isn't even half over yet. But with 51% average gains and two open plays sitting solidly over 100% we're already poised to have one of the best years yet.

If that isn't proof enough, let me spell it out in the simplest of terms:

If you'd put $1,000 in every single Resource Trader Alert play, from 2002 through the most recently closed position — winners and losers alike — you'd be sitting on $117,909.82 in pure profits.

That's almost $118K just for reading your email and making a couple of five minute phone calls to a broker.

Certainly nothing to sneeze at, right?

But tune that up to $5,000 per play, and you're looking at, $589,549.11.

That would mean an average of:

$79,497 every year
$6,624 each month
$1,656 a week

Without ever buying or selling a single stock. And without ever risking more than you're comfortable risking.

Plus, we have open positions currently sitting at 77%, 102% and 104%.

So, as you can see, we're already well-positioned to close out a couple more triple-digit gainers!

Put the Anti-Stock Market To Work For You — See Your Money Double In As Little As Six Weeks

How would your account look if you made 100% gains on your money nine times in one year?

Of course, your total take would depend on how much you plugged into each play.

But whether you put $1,000 into each play and took $18,000 or you put $10,000 into each and made $180,000, I'll tell you this much:

You'd be way ahead of anyone counting on 2010 top stocks, bonds, mutual funds, hedge funds or storage in their guest-room mattress to pull them through these tough times.

The Resource Trader Alert's track record speaks for itself.

Through good times and bad, readers have seen average annual returns of over 56% a year… for seven straight years.

And in 2008? Considered the worst year for investors since the Great Depression?

Subscribers saw a staggering 71% average return for the year. Including the rare play that went south…

That means $1,000 in each of last year's plays — both winners and losers — would have you sitting on almost $13,500 in pure profits.

And $5,000 in each play would have meant almost $67,500…

For checking your email once a day and doing a grand total of maybe an hour's worth of "work" over the span of a year.

2009 is already gearing up to stomp all over 2008's track record… and I want you to get on board and profit along with us.

But I'm not going to lie — a research service like this doesn't come cheap.

And the truth is, if you can't afford the subscription price, then the plays would probably blow your mind anyway.

Because, with a record of success like the Resource Trader Alert, and the unbeatable multiple money-doubling guarantee I'm about to offer you, I could easily charge $10,000 a year.

Remember, I do all the work and you can reap all the benefits:

 

I recommend exactly what to buy

 

And I'll tell you exactly when to sell… cash in hand

All you have to do is check your email, decide if you want to get in on the play and then make a five minute phone call to a broker.

You can actually read my email to him word-for-word. It's that simple.

7 Reasons To Subscribe to Resource Trader Alert Right Now

Let me lay it out for you in plain English. When you become a subscriber to Resource Trader Alert you can expect:

1.

Two to three easy-to-follow trade alerts every month, sent right to your inbox

2.

Detailed recommendations for how and when to cash out of each play

3. Detailed market and portfolio updates every Wednesday morning, right in your inbox
4. I'll do all the work, you'll see all the gains
5. Your risk will always be fixed and 100% in your control
6. The FREE report Learning to Play Commodities Options Like a Champion
7. THE SINGLE MOST INCREDIBLE PROFIT GUARANTEE I'VE EVER OFFERED (more on this in a minute)…

With a laundry list of benefits like this, heck, $10,000 would be a steal.

Sound steep?

Well, my brokerage division specialized in options trading. And our clients would pay $50 — $75, minimum, for a five-minute phone call.

That's about $600 — $900 for an hour of options research — my knowledge and expertise was worth every penny.

Now, imagine paying a rate like that over the course of a year. All of a sudden, $10,000 doesn't sound so steep, does it?

But, through a special arrangement I've made with Agora Financial, if I hear from you today, I won't charge you even a quarter of that.

You'll get a full year of Resource Trader Alert, 24-36 market-crushing trade recommendations, alerts, insights and one of the most unbelievable track records in the industry, for just $1,495.

You read that right: only $1,495.

You'll have the opportunity to make that back in as little as six weeks when we hit our next triple-digit gainer!

Still not sure? That's alright…I've got an airtight guarantee you couldn't possibly pass up…

You'll See NINE Chances To Double Your Money (Or Better) In the Next 12 Months Or Your Money Back

No, I'm not crazy…I'm just sure that I'll make you rich.

No matter what the market conditions are.

Since 2002, Resource Trader Alert readers have seen an average of nine money-doubling opportunities a year… sometimes triple… sometimes quadruple… sometimes more!

And I'm sure we'll do it again.

But, if my Anti-Stock Market recommendations don't produce at least nine chances at 100% returns in my track record, in the next 12 months, all you have to do is call me, tell me you didn't see nine doublers, and ask for a refund. 

Even if you "only" see a chance to double your money just eight times. Even on day 364 of your yearly membership!

It's as simple as that.  I take on all the risk — and you get everything for free unless you see a chance to make 100% nine times in one year.

So, Let Me Hear from You by Wednesday, June 10th and Save Even More Off the One-year Price, plus… 100% Gains Nine Times In A Year — Guaranteed!

I can't tell you the exact price here — you'll have to click through to the order page to see your final discount.

But I can tell you that we may never offer Resource Trader Alert for such a low price again.

Of course, you're free to call and cancel at any time. But if you should ever decide to sign up again, I can't guarantee you'll see a deal this good.

The price will surely be $1,495… or more.

So, why miss another opportunity to profit. Our next triple-digit gainer could come at any minute… don't wait, order now!

Because it all comes back to commodities… it ALL comes back to the Anti-Stock Market.

In the last seven years you could have made $589,000 — just by checking your e-mail… 

That's what my colleague Alan Knuckman has done for his readers by showing them how to invest in the "Anti-Stock Market" — a group of recommendations that averaged 71% gains in 2008 alone.

Now, he's guaranteeing nine chances to double your money — or better — in the next 12 months! 

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Evil Agency—And It Ain’t the CIA

Most people probably haven't heard of one of the most powerful and destructive agencies in Washington: the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). It was created by the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, with the task of setting and policing the auditing standards for publicly held companies. The PCAOB not only conducts investigations of accounting firms but also interprets key sections of Sarbanes-Oxley, particularly the notorious Section 404, which covers a company's internal controls. The agency also has the power to tax--dubbed an "accounting support fee"--to fund its operations. The PCAOB has five members. Not surprisingly, with their power to tax, these members pay themselves handsomely. PCAOB Chairman Mark Olson took home about $654,000 last year, and his four colleagues each raked in nearly $532,000. This far exceeds what the U.S. President makes ($400,000), as well as the $500,000 cap the Obama Administration has set for CEOs whose companies receive federal bailout money.

The PCAOB has morphed into an accounting version of Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, demanding costly but useless procedures, including such minutiae as which workers in a company can have office keys and telling companies how often they should change computer access codes. While drenching itself in such trivia, the PCAOB was out to lunch on the biggest economic/ accounting issue of our time: the subprime mortgage disaster.

The whole point of Sarbanes-Oxley was to prevent fraud. In that regard it has failed miserably. Three years after Sarbanes-Oxley was enacted a major commodities firm, Refco, collapsed amid brazen accounting fraud. A Brookings-American Enterprise Institute study has found that Sarbox has cost the U.S. economy more than $1 trillion in direct and indirect costs.

PCAOB was a vigorous champion of that weapon of mass destruction, mark-to-market accounting. Even now it is waging a rear-guard action to undo the easing that the FASB promulgated in April.

Relief may be on the horizon. In a move that astonished observers the Supreme Court announced last month that it would hear a case brought by the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Free Enterprise Fund challenging the constitutionality of the PCAOB. The challenge sounds arcane, but it could be one of those landmark cases that occasionally crop up and bolster the sanctity of the rule of law, which undergirds the U.S.' political and free-enterprise system.

The challenge is based on the appointments clause of the Constitution, which requires that "Officers of the United States" be appointed by the President or by the head of an agency. The officials of the PCAOB--despite their enormous powers, including civil and criminal investigations of accounting firms--are appointed by the SEC commissioners acting collectively. As CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman puts it: "The framers of the Constitution believed that if government officers were appointed by collective bodies rather than by individuals, then responsibility for their actions would largely vanish." The PCAOB is not accountable to the President or to the SEC chairman.

This is a case worth watching. If constitutional prohibitions are treated as relics, if commercial contracts can be brazenly upended to serve short-term political ends and if property rights can be trampled on for political purposes, then the U.S. will indeed sink into an Argentina-like morass in the years to come. But such a disaster would have mortal--not just economic--consequences. Without a strong, purposeful U.S., the world would be a far more violent and tyrannical and less prosperous place. One need only look at the 1930s to see what can unfold when the U.S. is weak and withdrawn.

The latest business loans numbers show that bank loans to businesses are still falling. AS I have written in recent posts, large banks have systematically shut down their lending to small businesses over the past 2 months, an unintended consequence of the hugely profitable government bailout programs. Basically, today if you can't sell it to the government don't bother making the loan.

Banks have loaned approximately -$100 billion to U.S. companies since last fall. Tough to make payroll when you have to pay more to the bank than you get from the bank.

The latest weekly figures, show that banks have reduced loans to businesses by $15.8 billion–roughly -$4,000,000,000 per week–in the past month alone. That does not mean there is less borrowing; it means there is negative borrowing. Banks have forced their business customers to actually pay down their loan balances by $4 billion per week. The only way to do that in a small business is to lay off a worker or sell some inventory or other assets at a deep discount.

Essentially all business loans are small business loans–big public companies get their working capital in the commercial paper market. This is a major reason why employment continues to fall.

This is not the end of the world. I wrote a few days ago, in a piece called Time to Think About the Next Story-Inflation, Rising Rates, Commodity Prices, Weak Dollar, that the tsunami of bank reserves released by the Fed over the past six months is hugely profitable for banks and will eventually force a reopening of the credit markets. This chart is just to remind you that it is going to take longer to show up in jobs numbers than it has in bank stock prices.

The big question around Google's new push into e-books is how, if at all, it will change Amazon's fortunes. Jefferies & Company analyst Yousseff Squali argues that Amazon will likely remain the e-books leader, but that the move by Google (NSDQ: GOOG) may force Amazon to provide publishers with better financial terms and offer aggressive discounts on the Kindle. Squali didn't provide specifics on what those new terms might be, but he did analyze the competitive challenges the two will face as they grow their e-books businesses.

—Search is a key advantage for Google: Squali said Google could use its dominant search engine as a distribution channel that could trigger impulse buys. Google could, for example, easily publish its own sponsored search or paid click listings alongside searches for e-books or relative products. 

—Google's profit margins will likely be higher: By offering an e-books sales-and-delivery service rather than selling an e-reader, Squali believes Google could get higher profit margins from its e-books business than Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN). (Amazon, of course, has manufacturing, distribution and support costs related to the Kindle.) If Squali's prediction that Amazon will have to drop its price for the Kindle is right, margins would be even lower since the costs of making and distributing the Kindle likely wouldn't change.

—Several factors will determine the winner: Squali sees three primary factors in deciding who will be the ultimate winner in the e-book battle: 1) whether users gravitate to reading e-books online or on devices; 2) whether users will be satisfied with reading books that are stored on Google's servers or "own" them on their hard drives; and 3) which company wins the pricing war.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Fed Up with Wall Street Shenanigans

Fifty years from now, a generation of middle-school children will learn the ins and out of this economic disaster. They will learn about millions of arrogant, self-absorbed investors — both on Wall Street and Joe Schmos with e*Trade accounts – that lost their shirts by placing dumb bets on common equities, junk bonds, real estate, and even bank CDs.

If you don't want to be lumped in with this group, listen up… You need to understand something about the investment world. It feeds on your interest and greed. Without these two things, the people that are running the show — yes, the same people that drove it into the ground — don't make any money.

Think about this for a second. When you hear about "investment opportunities," does the person speaking know how to decipher every line of a balance sheet or income statement? Can that person understand "Wall Street Speak"? If so, does that person get paid on the basis that his or her "investment opportunity" trade more often?

My point is…brokers profit from you trading often, most of your friends that day trade probably don't know a lick about a discounted cash flow model, and your early edition of the Wall Street Journal is full of advertisements from these same "investment opportunities" it is featuring on the front page. Get it now? Your interests don't align with the things you hear about investments.

You can be best friends with a banker, but do you think the CD you just tied your money up in will outpace inflation? [Remember we have a 10-digit budget deficit in the U.S.]

Even here in the investment newsletter industry, we have our share of pushers. At Agora Financial, we aren't allowed to invest in our own recommendations. We are the minority, when it comes to conflict of interest. Unfortunately, such conflicts do exist elsewhere.

I don't mean to scare you. I don't mean to intimidate you. I just wanted to set up what the rest of the world considers too boring to even discuss.

It's a type of investment that may not be sexy. It may not be popular in message boards. But it does make a select few tons of money with next to no risk.

I'm talking about enormous yields, limited and known downside, and investor benefits above and beyond what most investment managers will ever advise their customers to buy.

This is the kind of investment that Warren Buffet takes advantage of every chance he gets. In fact, investments like these are about the only thing the kept the old bat afloat last year.

You hear about sweetheart deals and how investor elites practically get away with murder on Wall Street. One of the investments I'm about to show you is the exact tool they use. In fact, Berkshire Hathaway — Buffett's investment company — can count the gains from these investments as assets even before they arrive in its trading account.

You can't do that with the gains you expect from the shares of Google you bought when it IPOed five years ago. Those gains are non-existent until you sell your shares. And when you do sell, the government will tax the hell out of your gains.

Berkshire Hathaway's investment, on the other hand, counts as real income, and is taxed at a relatively small flat rate. Beat that, top stocks market of 2010!

Alright, I'm done hyping… I'm talking about preferred top stocks for 2010. It's the only kind of equity that is considered fixed income. Meaning, holders of preferred shares can expect — and claim — the interest from these shares as future assets.

While this may sound boring or "unsexy," this is how the rich — like Warren Buffett — stay rich and even grow their wealth. It's also how folks like you and me bank a few extra bucks when you can't even count on your Google shares to increase in value.

I know from being a long-time reader of Whiskey that there's a good chance you're a gold bug. So am I. But do I think gold will pay me quarterly paychecks that are taxed at a flat dividend rate? Hell no!

Even when you cash out the gold you've been storing since the 1970s for massive gains, you will pay equally massive income tax on it [Well, some of you will—Ed.]. Dividends, which are how these preferred shares pay out, are currently taxed at a flat 15%. Average income tax is around 39%-40%. You can do the math.

Unfortunately, the people supposedly in charge of discussing opportunities like these are busy pushing more exciting "opportunities" like the "Next Microsoft" or whatever company just bought an ad in their paper.

I'm not saying there's no room in your well-balanced portfolio for great opportunities you hear about on the seventh green at your local golf course. I'm just saying, the ones you should be hearing about just aren't sexy enough.

 

Plenty of you had something to say to the fellow who assumed I was a ghetto snipe. This for example:

Hi Gary,
 
Just finished reading the response from the older reader born and raised in Irvington, and I find it amazing that he hasn't learned to listen to the message. He's way too focused on the messenger's delivery.
 
I'm not particularly fazed about the choice of your language; what matters to me is that I can understand the gist of your message, and it is a message that I'm getting loud and clear. When the faeces hit the fans in volumes, the least of our worries is the choice of niceties we use to communicate. Clear, concise language and imagery that invokes the truth of the message is all that is important, and if that occasionally contains colloquialisms or profanity to enhance the message, all the better. In particular, Mr. Kunstler has a very real way of communicating his concern through his writing (I've read his books), and he was even genuine enough to communicate with me about my fears of what the world faces, which I learned about whilst reading 'The Long Emergency'.
 
The importance of the events now occurring, and those very likely to occur, has encouraged me to learn as much as I can. In taking this path of finding the truth I can attest to the fact the truth is very often vulgar and brutal. But it is the truth, and I can work with that.
 
Ignore those who choose to listen to the way you say things as opposed to what you are saying; they are missing the point entirely. Keep up the honesty. Complaints come easier than the compliments, but rest assured, there are many of us out here who thoroughly enjoy your missives. And when you get the complaints, you are very probably getting very close to the truth.
 
Well done!

And this one…

Gary -
 
The [reader] who complained about Kunstler's language, et cetera, should have received a lot more opprobrium than you seemed to be willing to give, so let me say it:  what a racist a**hole.
 
People like him are just pathetic.  He can be offended by my language, but I am offended by his stupidity.
 
Keep shootin'.
  

And another…

Hey Gary,

I'm not sure which article the angry guy from Irving, NJ was referring to, but I have to say that of all the little ditties that I read on a daily basis. Whiskey & Gunpowder is the BEST.

I am a socially and fiscally conservative soldier stationed in Europe…a student of politics and history. I am also becoming more of a student of economics and how it all ties in together. I thank you and the rest of the 'Bar' for what you produce. I usually find myself saying..."damn right"... out loud while I'm reading your articles.

Thanks for the good word, all of you. We're truly glad to have you at the bar.

Now…about trusting fund managers and the government…

Gary,

After reading your opinion about 401 k accts [I wonder] what is your opinion on the availability for IRA accounts?

Good question. I'll answer that in a moment, but first this reader believes I got it all wrong…

You don't differentiate — however, in Congress' zeal TO "GET TAX UP FRONT ON 401K DEPOSITS." I would suspect that Roth 401k deposits actually could be withdrawn (once you pass age 59 and a half) any time you want.
 
The company match is a different story. And when your company matches at 72% on the first 12% of your income, that sum builds up fast, also.

Your suggestion to "avoid 401k completely" is stupid.  What we need is a little assurance that Obama and Pelosi cannot "blend 401k and all other retirement plans into Social Security.  Because if they can do that, they also can do damn near the same thing with your brokerage account.
 
The Roth is looking better all the time…

I'm tempted to file this one under "missing my point entirely"…

Having to wait till you are pushing sixty does not count as "any time you want."
 
And that enormous company match will be just enough to pay the tax on the whole kitty when you withdraw it…unless of course you withdraw it very, very slowly and avoid sending yourself into higher tax brackets.

So if you do everything juuuust right, then maybe this 401(k) thing will work out for you…like suburban living and excess consumption did for the baby boomers…still doesn't make it a good idea.

While you're at it, maybe you get a mortgage and have a couple of kids for the tax benefit and your benevolent Uncle Sam's pat on the head.

That adults would agree to such hegemon over their finances mystifies me.

Further it's become abundantly clear that funds you willingly place in these instruments are much more susceptible to being withheld from you than, say, the stuff you put in a savings account in hopes that Obama doesn't declare a bank holiday.

My advice to avoid the 401(k) — and by extension the IRA — is like my advice to avoid getting in cars driven by strange men who aggressively offer you candy and a ride. Take that for what it's worth.

Here's a Shooter who hits the mark…

Speaking of takes, here's an interesting one…

Only one thing in error on the tar pit article: Your buddy made the statement that "after all, it is my money."
 
Wrong, any and all government tax-sheltered plans are the property of the government. And always have been. It's just now, where every possible method of directing/pushing money towards the top stocks market has been utilized and the amounts have become so large, that true ownership of the assets is being asserted.
 
I accepted that once I realized it and was "deep in the system." Most people that I spoke to about it thought I was exaggerating, at the least.
 
Soon, with the stroke of an Executive Order pen, any and all assets can be/will be "locked up" for "the good of the nation."
 
Unfortunately, most do not realize what time it is, or what freedom is.
 
Lastly, I do not personally care if you are black, white, purple, or green. All I care about is your value system and your conduct. Shame on that fellow from NJ.
 
Thanks for trying to define what freedom is and what it isn't.

Happy to oblige. Thanks for writing.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

The Lowdown on Tech's Ultimate Bellwether

As a longtime watcher of Cisco Systems, I have always known the tech giant was a bellwether company in more ways than one.

When the internet exploded onto the scene in the 90s, Cisco was literally at ground zero of what became Web 1.0. As Cisco went, so went the tech sector.

After all, its switches and routers made it all possible. And in the run-up to the tech bubble that ultimately collapsed, Cisco's share price went hyperbolic, as did numerous others'.

But sales figures and inventory numbers weren't what made Cisco a hot stocks market of 2010 indicator for me for me back then — not as much as its name.

That's because, in the hands of my sister, Cisco's name proved to be the greatest bellwether of them all.

It happened in the spring of 2000 at a typical family gathering. You know the kind: spiral ham, potato salad, a Jell-O mold, and some lukewarm beer.

I was making the usual small talk with my pop when my sister — God bless her — appeared out of nowhere and began talking about how we should look into a stock she was thinking about buying.

She said — and I'll never forget this as long as I live — "You guys need to buy some shares of Cisco Systems stock. I think it could easily double." Cisco, as you may remember, was trading over $100 at the time.

Now, knowing her as I did, my reply was quite simple. "What makes you think that?" I asked her, trying not to chuckle.

"Well," she said, "everyone I know thinks so. And besides, I see their trucks all over the place."

With that, I could barely hold onto my warm beer and Jell-O because I was laughing so hard.

I realized my sister didn't know the difference between Sysco Foods and Cisco Systems, and she was about to buy the high flier at its peak.

Of course, once I finally got control of myself, I tried talking her into a nice mutual fund.

But driving home that night, it struck me: my sister was really no different than that stock-picking shoeshine boy before Black Monday in 1929. And suddenly, all that talk about bubbles began making perfect sense to me.

Cisco, of course, never did double again. In fact, it soon tanked along with the rest of the high fliers.

Tech's Ultimate Bellwether: Cisco Systems Stock 

But unlike those other companies, Cisco just kept chugging along — growing and capturing top stocks market share. Its share price may have gone virtually flat, but the company managed to hold onto its bellwether status.

A bellwether, by the way, is loosely defined as anything that tends to create, influence, or set trends.

It comes from the Middle English word bellewether and actually has nothing to do with the "weather" as we know it. It refers to the practice of putting a bell around the neck of a castrated ram (a wether) so it may lead its flock of sheep.

Of course, the October 2007 comments from Cisco CEO John Chambers spooked the stock markets and basically marked the top of the tech stocks market. (Who said the bell doesn't ring at the top?)

Back then, Chambers was merely warning about the outlook for flat U.S. sales — and the Nasdaq has been down ever since. Today, of course, it has turned into something else entirely: a global slowdown.

That has given the company a certain layer of doubt, leaving investors to worry how Cisco's sales will measure up, since it's always about winning the expectations game on the Street.

And in a free, new six-page report, The Wealth Advisory research team has broken down the tech giant, answering the question on every investor's mind these days. . .

Is Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) a Buy, Sell, or Hold?

In this free report, Wealth Daily subscribers will receive:

  • The results from The Wealth Advisory's proprietary scoring model

  • A buy, sell, or hold recommendation

  • A 12-month Price Target along with a current Stop/Loss

  • A technical and fundamental analysis of the company's share price

  • And much more. . .

To receive a free download of this report and our Buy, Sell, or Hold recommendation for Cisco Systems Inc.

I hope you enjoy your free Cisco Sytems stock report. I'll be publishing many more of these in the weeks to come. . .

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

How It Successfully Predicts Top Stocks

It was almost two years ago, since I met with Ian Cooper in the corner of one of Baltimore's newest Thai restaurants.

I remember calling the near-spontaneous Saturday afternoon meeting like it was yesterday. And for good reason.

You see, word was traveling - and traveling fast - that Ian's deadly-accurate stock-picking method enhanced somehow by manipulating Google's top-secret search algorithm... the same one that makes it the most powerful and trusted search engine on the planet today.

If the rumors were true, it would mean that Ian very well could have single-handedly unlocked the easiest - and most profitable - top stock analysis tool on the planet.

As I would find out... and as you'll see in the free report below... successfully manipulating Google's one-of-a-kind algorithm is just the tip of the iceberg.

Google.

In the few short years the company's been around, the coveted search engine's rapidly transformed from a college buddy start-up into THE household search engine.

In fact, the top-secret algorithm they created is so powerful that you never "search" for anything any more - you "Google" it.

... even if you're still using Yahoo! for your queries.

To top it off, it's so versatile that people across the world trust it to rapidly find everything from accurate maps and driving directions to breaking news and their children's GPS positions.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that this legendary algorithm can even predict which employees are about leave their jobs - even before they know themselves!

But it's what one investment legend's been successfully using it for that I find astounding.

Let me explain...

Imagine for a moment being able to take that same algorithm - the one that's made it the most trusted and reliable search tool on the planet - to find something much more valuable... best stock advice.

I'm not talking about coming out with double-digit gains here, either. I'm talking about being able to manipulate this coveted algorithm safely, and use it to pull in triple-digit winner after triple-digit winner in an otherwise dangerous small-cap sector.

Well... his name's Ian Cooper. And after a near decade-long tenure showing investors how to rake in some of the largest gains in the market, approaching 1,500 of them, you could say with confidence that he's on to something big... VERY BIG.

Meeting the man who manipulated Google's algorithm.

Our paths initially crossed in a chance meeting at a Christmas Party back in 2001. He was just starting his soon-to-be highly successful career as a research analyst for a firm just down the street.

Since then, Ian's created quite the name for himself as a small-caps and options trading wizard. He's pulled in gains of:

120% on Royal Caribbean

194.12% on QQQ

269.52% on On2 Technologies

270% on ONT

268% on CYD

206.33% on VTSS

246% on IPIX

233% on TLTCJ

515.38% on MQJSB

225% on ETGP

302.15% on ASTM

And that's just to name a few.

His off-the-charts accuracy for reliably reading the markets, matched with his winner-after-winner track record, has plastered his sought-after advice on the pages of numerous publications. He's filled columns from Investor's Business Daily all the way to Forbes.

He's also frequently appeared on investment shows such as Money Matters with Barry Armstrong and On the Money with Mike Stein.

In other words, Ian has rapidly become the real deal.

He's successfully helped thousands of investors just like you, beating the Dow every year. And not just in good times. He saw the sub-prime collapse over a year before it started and warned investors right on time.

He saw it coming ahead of time and didn't just show them how to come away unscathed, they made money - lots of it - while the rest of the market panicked. He'd pulled in gains of:

188% gain from Thornburg

138% gain from Hovnanian

150% gain from Standard Pacific

Just to name a few.

It wasn't the first time. Ian somehow manages to unearth amazing plays no matter how the markets behave. Always one step ahead.

In fact, when things are bad, that's when he's pulled in the biggest gains.

Manipulating the world's most reliable algorithm into a profit-generating machine.

It's one of the greatest achievements the internet ever experienced. And it almost never took place...

In 1996, two young, Stanford PhD students were partnered together by their professor, in an advanced computer-science class.

As with most - eventually - famous partnerships, the two geniuses were polar opposites.

In fact, aside from their taste in women, the only thing they had in common was their obsession with fixing the massive glitches found in every (at the time) internet search engine. To them, they weren't anywhere near as accurate as they should be.

They knew the solution lied in the algorithm, a powerful formula for computing and finding virtually anything.

It took over two years and several failed theories. But they finally hit pay-dirt. And landed a discovery so astounding that within just eight years, their algorithm would rapidly become the most trusted and reliable search engine on the planet.

Its one-of-a-kind, highly reliable system has launched Google from a single-server search engine to the largest American company outside of the Dow. It's so reliable, in fact, that after just nine years you no longer perform a "web search" for something, you "Google" it.

Its mainframe is built like a fortress, changing codes and updating itself almost every day.

But their algorithm, as I would soon find out, wouldn't be strictly limited to internet searches. As Ian phrased it...

What if you could take this algorithm and tweak it for your own uses?

What if you could use it to detect the hottest emerging trends, and the companies within them, the same exact way that makes Google so reliable?

What if there was a way to use it to detect one best stock out of more than 17,000 that is just about to explode?

I learned that's exactly what Ian's been doing.

The details I learned while talking with him are highly complicated. And if you aren't an experienced IT professional, you most likely wouldn't understand it.

That's all right. All you need to know is that six years ago, Ian started manipulating the algorithm.

And as you'll see in a moment, it's making a handful of investors like you quite rich.

It's not all he uses. But it is the last of ten powerful indicators Ian has perfected to help confirm the high probability of the best stock launching several hundred percent!

He calls these ten indicators his Maxims of Fortune. And it's a fitting name.

In short, when the indicators align, it creates an extremely strong buy signal, and a stock's share price soon after does something marvelous... it skyrockets.

Now, something Ian has learned the hard way over the years is that even if you have nine out of ten indicators, forget about it. Save your money. It's not worth it.

Move on.

But when all ten are combined, the gains are so explosive, it's like hotwiring an ATM.

I'm not talking about finding one-trick ponies, either. Ian is dipping into the elusive small-cap sector and finding companies that rapidly turn into the giants of their industries.

These stable opportunities didn't used to come around all the time. Ian used to uncover maybe one or two a year. But now, thanks to his little-known ability to manipulate the most powerful algorithm on the planet, he's starting to find them closer to once a month!

And when his list of indicators starts urging a buy, he's been right there to recommend it. Always before it starts to surge.

For example, in October 2001, his indicators were urging a buy on Navisite, an IT hosting company whose share price had sunk from $1,000 to just $0.16.

Nobody wanted a piece of it, as people were fleeing dot-com stocks like the plague.

But Navisite's price was too low. And thanks to Ian's "Google-style" manipulation, the indicators fired on all cylinders when it bottomed out. It was time to buy.

Six years later, shares of Navisite traded for about $10. And investors who got in when Ian made the recommendation safely turned every $10,000 into $625,000!

Have a look:

(image) Chart

Then, in October, 2002, he used these indicators again to uncover a growing web-acceleration company called Akamai...

At the time, shares of this company were bottomed out, trading for just $0.84. But at the same time, all signals from the indicators revealed the company as a go.

As expected, the price started to take off shortly after. By 2007, this emerging web-accelerator's shares broke $60!

The 7,043% gain made investors like you $714,285 for every $10,000 they started with!

Here. Check it out:

(image) Chart

And then there's this Blockbuster from ATP Oil and Gas...

When he found it, shares were trading for $3.64. Again, the indicators, topped with Google's manipulation, issued a strong buy signal.

Today, shares of ATP trade for over $38.00!

(image) Chart

If you haven't noticed, he's finding these monsters in the once-inscrutable small-cap sector.

It's easy to see why. After all...

This is the sector where the real money is made. Where every investor dreams of "hitting it big." And where a stake of just a few thousand dollars could secure your entire retirement.

Ironically, most mainstream publications won't touch it with a ten-foot pole.

Tapping into an advantage of more than 21% a year - since 1925!

But Ian's found a way to detect these soon-to-be leaders of their industries among thousands of bottoms-up companies running on nothing more than rumor and fluff.

The method here, finding outstanding investment after investment, could be summed up in one word - leverage.

After all, this is the sector where index-crushing companies get started. It's the birthplace of Fortune 500 leaders such as Cisco Systems, Best Buy, and even the number-one Fortune 500 company, Wal-Mart.

In fact, the 2007 Ibbotson yearbook, considered the bible of the investment analysis community, recently announced that since 1925, small caps have outperformed large caps by more than 21% a year!

What's even more amazing is that only about 1% of the companies in this sector ever make any money. But that handful of best stocks for 2010 launches so high, so fast that it carries the entire sector's average above already-established large caps.

And now, thanks to this powerful Google manipulation, Ian's knock-'em-down set of indicators is taking full advantage of it.

And Ian's going to share his powerful secrets with you!

Now, in this extremely rare opportunity, Ian will share his Ten Maxims, along with his highly reliable algorithmic manipulation of Google, with investors just like you.

All you have to do is accept this trial run into what could be the most profitable small-cap advisory on the planet. It focuses solely on unlocking highly explosive opportunities in the small-cap sector using these indicators. I highly recommend you check it out.

It's called the SC Trading Pit.

SC, as you might have guessed, stands for Small Cap. And as the name implies, none of these opportunities will have a market cap of more than $500 million.

I know that might seem large, but in the investment world, it's not. Just look at Wal-Mart's massive market cap of over $198 billion - compared to the $205 million it started out with.

Even $22 billion giant Best Buy started with only $79 million. Now they're both household names.

The story's the same for scores of other Fortune 500 companies. And Ian's Ten Maxims will easily uncover future blockbusters for investors just like you.

In other words, if you were ever looking for an advisory that requires only a tiny bit of money to make an absolute fortune, this is it.

How the SC Trading Pit could make you filthy rich.

It's perhaps the fastest, most efficient way an investor can make several hundred - even thousand - percent gains. And thanks to Ian's set of Ten Maxims, it's as easy as checking your email.

Every other week, a new issue of SC Trading Pit enters email boxes across the world.

Each issue will explain all the details of Ian's latest SC Trading Pit recommendations. These are the companies that Ian has thoroughly examined using the same painstaking criteria that made him the sought-after analyst he is today - using the secrets of his Ten Maxims of Fortune and his manipulation of the world's most trusted search engine.

These are companies that could easily break 1,000% gains within months - not decades.

On top of that, you'll also receive the latest updates from the companies currently in the SC Trading Pit portfolio. You'll be among the first to know about any company updates, news, progress and deals that are coming down the pike.

And of course, with any best stocks of 2010 Ian recommends or sells (for a profit, of course), you'll know where to buy it, how much you stand to make, and most importantly, when to sell.

We'll also rush every new member a list of Ian's secret criteria he personally uses to find these companies.

It's a very easy-to-understand guide called The Ten Maxims of Fortune.

That way, not only can you analyze for yourself the companies we recommend and test them to see how they match up... but you can also use this report to find hidden opportunities of your own.

What's more, this report can be adapted to help you determine the attractiveness and probability of success of virtually every best stocks for 2010 in the market.

It's yours FREE, just for joining SC Trading Pit.

I encourage you to print it out, keep a copy of it and use it for every opportunity you're considering, now and in the future.

And best of all...

You get all this for less than the cost of the Wall Street Journal.

As the trend goes, the more general a publication, the lower the price.

Take a look at some of the mainstream outlets. They're all extremely vague, big-picture and generalized. They run between $79 and $250 a year.

Don't get me wrong. We're not running them down at all. In fact, there's a copy of the Financial Times on the table as I write this letter. But the truth is, we don't care about a good chunk of what's in there.

It all concerns BIG business... and while it's valuable for reading up on any "safe," already established company, most truly wealthy investors have made the bulk of their money from the exact opposite.

That's why Ian has created SC Trading Pit in the first place.

Now, typically, a highly specific service like SC Trading Pit would cost several hundred dollars a year. Heck, even several thousand isn't unheard of in this business. But we're not going to go anywhere near that.

The price for an annual membership in SC Trading Pit?

It's only $99 a year.

That's right. An annual membership in SC Trading Pit is just a hair over $0.27 a day!

For that, you get instant access to the SC Trading Pit Portfolio, 26 information-packed issues detailing the opportunities in this explosive sector, industry updates, AND your own copy of The Ten Maxims of Fortune so that you can gauge our picks and even find some of your own.

And here's my promise to you:

If for any reason SC Trading Pit doesn't match up to your expectations, simply let me know within the first 30 days, and I'll refund every penny. No questions asked!

On top of that, keep the report, The Ten Maxims of Fortune, as my gift to you.

That's about as good as I can make it.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Low Share Price, High Dividend, & Free Booze

They came in droves to T-Mobile's party. Admission was free, and so was the booze.

Few cared about the fact they'd just become a walking T-Mobile ad... Bright wristbands emblazoned each partygoer with the company's logo and new product name.

I heard the news from a friend who read about it on Facebook. Another buddy found out that a top DJ was set to spin music all night.

But the key for Deutsche Telekom (NYSE:DT), T-Mobile's German parent, is that the bash will always be remembered as "that T-Mobile party."

With DT's share price way down, its dividend nearing double-digits, and a social marketing strategy in place to keep the revenue pipeline flowing, we could be looking at a great global telecom play.

Walking Billboards Top Stocks Investment

Word of mouth is no longer word of mouth, after all. Text messages, Facebook posts, tweets, and chirps can turn every potential reveler into a peer-to-peer electronic marketing unit.

Right now, with ad budgets tighter than ever and customer retention being everyone's top task, social marketing makes sense.

The cost of acquiring new customers can vary wildly from company to company and campaign to campaign. . .

Yet, it must be true today that rather than cast the advertising dragnet of a billboard ― where you grab plenty of eyes but maybe only a few you really want ― social marketing allows for better focus and more momentum as the marketing message goes viral.

Otherwise, T-Mobile wouldn't be buying Jack Daniels & Coke for a warehouse full of 20-somethings.

Winning with Global Telecom Strategies

The 18-24 demographic is more powerful today than ever before. Winning a new customer means new revenue through service upgrades, overage charges, and a constant urge to have the freshest voice and data devices.

But Mobile Number Portability (MNP) is the sword dangling over every telecom exec's head, threatening to take all that juicy income elsewhere.

As I'm the traveling type, the communications advances of the past half-decade have made my life amazingly easy to manage, no matter where I am.

Most importantly, perhaps, MNP allows me to take my 10-digit serial number to any company that can successfully woo me.

Spending to drag customers like me away from a competitor with MNP requires more effort through upfront spending and direct pricing competition. That can mean a $200 credit on a $250 phone, or unrelated goodies like drinks and dancing.

Top Stocks For 2010

T-Mobile recognizes the continuing revenue opportunities that social marketing can create (their dance invasion of a London Underground station this spring was also a web sensation).

This year will probably still be tough for Deutsche Telekom shares and telecoms in general, the company warned on full-year earnings in late April.

Nevertheless, as a lasting proposition for earnings growth, I like what the company is doing.

NYSE:DT currently trades at just over $11 per share, down from nearly $18 one year ago.

Of course, I wouldn't expect you to wait around for the company to throw you a party just so you pick up some shares.

It's their hefty dividend over 9% (DT just paid $1.04 on under $11 per share April 28) that should keep you hanging with it.