5 Keys to Success

This is a brilliant post on the 5 vital keys to your success.

It is short, simple, and to the point.

It can replace hundreds of self-help books.

If we can only master the advice on this post (or follow it 50% of the time), we will experience more success than ever before.

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Joe Girard and the Law of 250

There is a very valuable entry on sales and marketing in the Tips Carnival I mentioned in my last post.

It concerns Joe Girard, a former used car salesman who is now a corporate speaker / trainer. Girard was in the Guinness Book of World Records as the "world's greatest salesman".

In his book How to Sell Anything to Anybody, he mentions the "Law of 250". The average person knows 250 people - so, for every prospect you talk to, it is like talking to 250.

Girard leverages this fact, by treating his prospects and customers right, and by always following up with them - via postcards, etc.

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President Calvin Coolidge on Reducing Government

This presidential speech, from 1924, was the first one recorded with sound. It's like the internet is a time machine.

"Silent Cal"'s wisdom would be great in today's world of deficits and high taxes:

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Enter My February Book-Selling Contest

Update: Contest is over.

How would you like to earn 20.7% on an Amazon.com Associates sale, instead of the standard 4%?  Well, you can from today until the end of February.

I'm sponsoring a book-selling contest for my book "Stock Trading Riches". 

I noticed that the recent volatility in the stock market has caused sales of my book to increase in the last few weeks.  I decided to capitalize on this trend by having the contest.

Not only can you get the regular 4% (48 cents) Amazon Associates commission, but you can also get $2 from me for each copy you sell, until the end of February.  This is a total of $2.48 on an $11.99 book.

In addition, the one who sells the most books by the end of February will win an extra $25, plus a permanent link (with your choice of anchor text) in a post from my Simple Trading System blog (PR 4).

Here are the details:

1. Take the link above and change the "tag" parameter to your Amazon Associates id.

2. Offer a free product (book, report, etc.) to anyone who buys the book through your link and sends you their Amazon receipt.  Promote this offer to your blog, website, and/or list.  This is a chance for you to build your opt-in list and/or engage in viral marketing (if your free product has give away rights).

3. Update: Contest ended.

4. I will pay you $2 by paypal right away.  I will record the amazon receipt number, so each receipt can only be submitted once for the contest.

5. I will track how many sales came from each paypal id.  So, please give the same id every time you forward a receipt. 

6. At the end of February, the paypal id with the most sales will receive an additional $25. 

7. I will also ask the winner to send me a URL they want a link to, and the anchor text they want.  I will give them a permanent link on my post announcing the winner.

8. For promotional materials, please feel free to copy anything from the sales letter on http://www.StockTradingRiches.com.

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To Be Successful, Go Out and Do Something!

I came across this interesting blog post called Are You Asking the Wrong Question?

The post argues that people aren't successful in fields like internet marketing, real estate investing, etc. because they keep asking themselves questions like "which book or software or seminar should I go to next?"

Instead, the author says they should be asking questions such as "Why haven’t I gotten off my a$$ and actually done anything with the knowledge I already have? Will I sit on my a$$, thinking about it and doing nothing, and wondering why other people succeed while I don’t?"

The article ends with a very interesting story:

...the teacher of a pottery class split his class into two groups. He told one group their grade would be determined on the basis of the number of pots they made during the semester. The quality of the pots did not matter, only the sheer number of pots created. The other group was told they only needed to make one pot and their grade would be determined based on the quality of that one single pot.

Interestingly, at the end of the semester, the group that produced the large volume of pots also produced pots of much higher quality than the group that was being graded on quality. Who knows why but presumably the group that was being graded on volume didn’t spend any time “thinking about it.” Instead they just started doing and learned from their mistakes until they created high-quality pottery. The other group instead of developing their pottery skills by actually making pottery probably studied all aspects of making high quality pottery. They spent too much time studying and too little time actually doing.

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Special Tone To Mess With Telemarketers

A blog called American Consumer News has a post on getting rid of telemarketers, even when DoNotCall.gov doesn't help.

The article tells about some gadgets that you can buy. They hook between your phone and the phone line. They play a tone that fools the telemarketing equipment into thinking that your phone is disconnected. This ends the call and erases your number from their system.

As a free alternative, the article also has a link to another site which has a recording of the tone. Just record this tone in the beginning of your answering machine message, and send the telemarketing call to the answering machine.

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RIP Richard Knerr - Thanks for the Business Lessons!

I just read on yahoo that Richard Knerr, the founder of the toymaker Wham-O died at 82.

My wife thinks that reading obituaries are kind of creepy, but his story is an example of why I like to read them.

His story holds lessons about business success and innovation:

1. Expand your product line - He and his partner started the company in 1948 to make slingshots (wham-o is the sound of a slingshot projectile hitting its target). They then built the company by expanding into other toy areas.

2. Don't be afraid to be playful. Knerr felt their contribution to society was fun. They gave their toys playful names like Slip N' Slide and Silly String.

3. Be open to new ideas. In 1958, a friend told them about large exercise rings that were used in Australia. They created their own version and called it the hula hoop.

4. Don't fall victim to the "Not Invented Here" syndrome. In the 1950's, they bought the rights to a plastic flying disk called the Pluto Platter. They renamed it the Frisbee, and the rest is history.

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The Mummy and the Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

I just created a Squidoo page for the new Mummy movie coming out:

The Mummy and the Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

I added links, You Tube videos, etc. about the movie.

At the end, I also added info about my book.

The movie is coming out in August, so hopefully people will search for information about the movie, and find my page.  Maybe the traffic will result in some book sales.

It is really easy to create pages on Squidoo.



Praveen's book and blogs:

Stock Trading Riches

Unix Simplicity

My Simple Trading System

Math and Logic Play

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Great Interview With Chris Anderson

Today, I read a great interview with Chris Anderson on the 123-reg blog.

123-reg is the largest web host in the U.K., and Chris Anderson is the editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine, as well as the author of "The Long Tail".

In the interview, which is pretty interesting, Anderson talks about the free marketing model, social networks, and the future of the internet.

Now, the idea of free, ad-supported websites is nothing new. It's a concept taken from radio and TV. But Anderson sees it increasing as a disruptive technology in the future. He discusses some extensions to the free model, such as the "inverted sample" - i.e. giving away 99% of your products to sell 1%.

Then, Anderson talked about social networks, and how they are just in their infancy. In the future, he sees micro social networks ingrained into most websites. He also talks about a very interesting social network that I never heard of, called Ning - which is actually a network of micro niche social networks.

Finally, he talked a little about his book "The long Tail", and some of the most common misconceptions people have about the niche concept.

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Stock Market 2008 - Third Worst Opening Day

Wednesday, Jan 2, 2008 was the first trading day of 2008,

and it was the third worst opening for the DOW since WWII.

However, Wednesday's performance doesn't

necessarily mean that stocks will have a bad year in 2008:


10 Worst Stock Market Opening Days since WWII (DOW 30 index)
-------------------------------------------------                           
Rank     Date     first day(%)     full year(%)
1.         1/3/1983     -1.86             +20.27

2.         1/2/1980     -1.69             +14.93

3.         1/2/2008     -1.67             ?

4.         1/3/1978     -1.62             -3.15

5.         1/2/2001     -1.30             -7.10

6.         1/3/1949     -1.30             +12.86

7.         1/3/2000     -1.21             -6.18

8.         1/3/1989     -1.10             +26.96

9.         1/2/1985     -1.05             +27.66

10.       1/4/1971     -1.00              +6.11


If we look at the other nine years in the chart above, we see that six of them ended with stocks gaining an average of 18.13%!

The other three years posted an average decline of 5.48%.

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2007 Stock Market Wrap-Up

According to yesterday's Chicago Tribune business section, here is how the stock indices finished in 2007:

Dow + 6.4%

NASDAQ +9.8%

S&P500 +3.5%

At the start of 2007, the pundits predicted that the market would struggle for the first three quarters of the year, and then have a strong rally at the end.

Almost the opposite of this occurred. The market climbed, and peaked in July. Then, the market declined - only to rally again in October. Then, the market declined in both November and December.

So, what should we look for in 2008? I don't know, and I don't care. The market could be flat, decline, or even rally.

Things look bleak now, but the last time the market lost ground in both November and December was in 1974. The mood was pessimistic, but stocks rallied strongly in 1975 for double digit gains.

As I have stated before, I don't believe in predictions. My system assumes that the market is a random walk, and the only thing you can count on is that stocks fluctuate over time.

As the late Edward Toppel, the author of "Zen in the Markets", put it: "Assume nothing, and be prepared for everything".

My approach was validated again this year. As I mentioned this morning, my portfolio was up 22% in 2007.

My intention isn't to brag - but to draw attention to systems such as mine, which use various rebalancing formulas to automatically buy low and sell high.

Simple rebalancing formulas are easy to implement and deadly effective. However, they are very difficult to use because they are against human nature.

I recently looked at an issue of "Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities". I hadn't read one in a long time. I couldn't believe how complex the trading systems have become!

I developed my system years ago, after I decided to go in the opposite direction - and ruthlessly simplify my model and approach to the markets. I have no intention to ever replace it.

Yet, even I still sometimes get the urge to tinker with technical indicators.

I'm sure that if I rewrote my book to promote complex systems using "Tradestation gymnastics" and junk like stochastics, RSI, etc. I'd sell lots of copies ;-)

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My Stock Trading System Crushed the Market in 2007

My simple, elegant, and Taoist stock trading system did great in 2007:

2007 Returns
------------------------
Dow + 6.4%
NASDAQ +9.8%
S&P500 +3.5%
My account +22%

I have now made a double-digit return for the last 3 years:

2005 +13%
2006 +14%
2007 +22%

During these last 3 years, I traded my account using my exact system - as  described in my book Stock Trading Riches.

As I mention in my book, I mostly got my picks from Forbes magazine, with a couple choices from MSN and my own picks (i.e. Apple).

But, while the choice of stocks did influence the return, I credit the bulk of my longer term performance over the 3 years to my formula - which got me to buy low and sell high.

In fact, my system would, over time,  generate a great return using a portfolio of randomly picked stocks.

Most technical trading systems depend on the market behaving in a certain way - i.e. trending, non-trending, or forming chart patterns.

My system only assumes one thing: In a portfolio of stocks, the stocks will fluctuate over time.  That is it.  My system turns your stocks into money pumps, and generates cash as each stock cycles up and down.

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Luxury Goods Retailers Now Feeling the Pinch

This morning's Chicago Tribune business section had an article saying that the high-end market is starting to slow down.

Previously, the turmoil with high gas prices and real estate were only slowing down sales in middle and low end stores. Luxury sellers, on the other hand, were doing good business.

Now, however, stores like Mordstrom and Neiman Marcus are starting to reduce prices.

Also, luxury goods makers like Coach are starting to drop their prices.

I don't necessarily see this as a sign of recession. Instead, this could just be an overheated luxury market slowing down to a normal pace.

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4 Ways to Invest In Real Estate

Here is an interesting post by "The Digerati Life" (a financial blogger I enjoy reading) on 4 Ways he might Invest in real estate.

Basically, he wants to steer clear of the more complex and perhaps shaky real estate concepts like tax liens and lease options.


Praveen's book and blogs:

Stock Trading Riches

Unix Simplicity

My Simple Trading System

Math and Logic Play

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