Yesterday I got back from a weekend away where I was without access to the internet for four days. It was a risk - sometimes automatic digital delivery can go wrong and people need help - but luckily I got a nice break from the internet and didn’t come back to any screaming customers.

Which gave me a little time to think…

I found an ad in a national paper over the weekend offering what seemed like a great bargain. A 19th Century gold sovereign for just £120.

The ad made it clear that there has been a huge increase in the price of gold and that it has been a great investment over the last few years. And it has. Since I’ve been into financial trading, gold has risen from around $380 an ounce (late 2003) to around $1,000 per ounce.

My immediate thoughts were that it may be worth investing £120 for one of these coins. Of course, without the internet I had no way of finding out whether it was a good deal or not.

The ad made it clear you’d be offered further coins in the future unless you opted out. I thought that the first coin might have been offered slightly below actual value as a “loss leader” to gather names.

Buying gold at slightly below what it is currently worth was very attractive to me and so when I got back to a PC, I went to work.

Gold, today, is trading at about $980 per ounce and a pound is worth about $1.9875. So, back of an envelope calculation, gold is about £493 per ounce.

These sovereigns weigh 0.2354 oz which comes out at about £116 if it is pure gold.

However, and I didn’t know this before, 24 carat gold is considered “pure”.

22 carat gold is considered 91.6% pure and these sovereigns were 22 carat so their “fineness” is 916 out of 1,000.

Technically, buying one of these sovereigns would result in me getting about 0.2156oz of gold.

Which I work out as being worth 0.2156 x £490 = c. £106.

Net result: the sovereign is available for £119 but is worth roughly £106.

Glad I did my research before blindly sending off for the coin…

I also came back to several not-too-pleasant comments on the blog. Somebody pointed out to me that a couple of these comments could actually be considered libellous.

Needless to say, they were removed.

And I am now considering whether or not to remove the comments feature altogether. As I was told by a business associate:

“…the problem with running forums etc – as I once found when I ran one too – is that anyone who feels a little brave behind a keyboard can post anything – and you as the forum owner are responsible. I closed mine down long ago as I saw no sense in spending time monitoring posts from nutters that could lead to legal action and me possibly losing my house. It just didn’t seem worth it to me…”

Scary stuff and so I will be monitoring comments very closely from now on!

Lastly, I found I had some money sat in my BetOnMarkets account so I had a little punt:

Bear Contract: Win GBP10 if, at the close of trading on 13-MAR-08, GBP/USD is lower than 2.

My thinking was, looking at the chart, there seems to be a resistance level at 2.00 so it was worth a very small wager for a bit of harmless fun. It only cost £7.45 so it’s a couple of pints worth of risk!

Just for the lawyers: THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE - please don’t copy my trade blindly.

Until next time, thanks for reading.

Ben

We’re only just into a new year and we’ve already got record high prices for Crude Oil.

Did you manage to catch any of the move to $100?

Watch this new video on trading crude that shows you the possibilities that this market offers:

Learn How To Trade Crude Oil In 90 Seconds

Also, new highs for Gold - did you make any money from them?

Watch this brand new 90 second video on trading the Gold market and see how it is possible to dominate this commodity:

Learn How To Trade Gold In 90 Seconds

Commodity prices are soaring - watch this new video on how you can take advantage of the price increases and also protect yourself against inflationary commodity pressures:

Learn How To Trade Futures In 90 Seconds

As always, there’s absolutely no registration required to watch these free trading videos.

Enjoy!

If you’re a little anxious or worried about the stock market at the moment, you’re not alone.

No doubt about it, a lot of traders are nervous this week.

Why?

It could be because tomorrow it is twenty years since “Black Monday”, the name given to the huge crash of 1987.

Some people reading this may be too young to remember the biggest single day drop in the history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

On the 19th of October 1987 the Dow dropped a massive 23% in just one day.

In case you are wondering the biggest single day crash in 1929 (another big “crash” year) was 12.9%, on October 28th 1929.

Can it happen again?

That’s the question Barrons posed on the front page of its weekly newspaper. The answer is: nobody knows…

However, I have just finished watching a new video which shows how you can protect yourself no matter what happens to the market - whether it goes up, down or just trades in a range.

You can watch it by clicking the following link (no registration required):

Free Black Monday Trading Video

It pays to be prepared because this could potentially be the most dangerous week of the year for a financial trader.

Enjoy!

Free Black Monday Trading Video

On Thursday (19th July) the Dow Jones Industrial Index closed at just over 14,000 which is the highest it has ever been.

Unfortunately it didn’t hold the 14k mark and yesterday closed at about 150 points less, 13,851.

Even at the height of the dot com boom, the Dow only hit around 12,000 so hitting 14,000 is quite an achievement. It’s a historic day for the Dow Jones, that’s for sure.

Over at the Market Club, the question that they’ve been getting most is:

“Where is the Dow going?”

With such a high point recorded, everyone now wants to know where it will be 2 days or even 200 days from now…

But that’s not the best question to ask.

The question traders should be asking is not “where is the Dow Jones going” but “how is the Dow is going to get there?”.

As per usual, the Market Club has put together a free video suggesting some techniques for predicting just how the Dow is going to pan out in the short-term future:

MarketClub - Dow 14,000

They’ve picked up the tab so it will cost you nothing… not even your email address.

It’s a MUST WATCH if you have any interest in financial markets, make sure you take advantage of their generosity!

MarketClub - Dow 14,000

There are some things in life that just seem to defy logic.

For example, have you ever had this happen to you?

You’re sitting alone at home, or at your office thinking about an old friend or business associate that you haven’t heard from in a long time.

Then, completely out of the blue the phone rings, and lo and behold, it’s that long lost friend on the phone.

Strange? Just a little.

Logical? Not at all.

How do you explain something like that?

It almost feels like you’re in Rod Sterling’s “Twilight Zone”.

His iconic TV series back in the early 60s focused on ordinary folks who suddenly find themselves in extraordinary, usually supernatural, situations.

It was a massive success at the time and has been repeated on telly for years.

The reason I mention this is because more and more members of MarketClub are feeling that they are in the “Twilight Zone of Good Financial Trades”.

You may ask; what on earth is that?

It all starts with MarketClub’s powerful new “”Trade the Triangle” scanning tools.

In this new video you learn how to use these tools, and how to spot a “Twilight Zone of Good Financial Trades”.

The video covers Hilton (no not Paris) but Blackstones’ $26 billion buyout offer for Hilton hotels that was announced after the stock market closed on July 3rd.

See how MarketClub’s “Trade the Triangle” scanning tools spotted the Hilton move before it was announced.

The video is not some academic classroom exercise, this is real and is the kind of stuff you can use right away in your own trading or spread betting:

Click Here for Free Hilton Trading Analysis Video

When you’ve finished watching this free 3 and 1/2 minute financial trading video, you’re going to think that you’ve landed in the “Twilight Zone of Good Financial Trades”

And you might just be right!

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Ben

Click Here for Free Hilton Trading Analysis Video