Almost three years ago I bought my first Apple product - a Macbook (the Apple equivalent of a laptop). Unfortunately the hard disk failed just last week which meant a couple of hours inserting a new hard drive and reloading the operating system.

All in all though, it’s a superb piece of kit. Well built, stylish and reliable - traits that Apple are becoming known for.

Perhaps this is why their stock is doing well at the moment.

Since October of last year the Apple share price has been in a trading range but just recently it has started to move up.

Stock market traders will now be wondering if Apple is ready for a upwards move.

And the traders over at INO have pre-empted this question by doing one of their famous free trading videos.

http://www.ino.com/info/333/CD34/&dp=0&l=0&campaignid=3

According to Adam Hewison, the President of INO:

“The world has changed, it is not a buy and hold market anymore. You need to be nimble, trade with a game plan and be disciplined. Those are the key mantras of a successful trader.”

With that in mind, check out what he currently thinks about Apple.

As always, there is no need to register or supply an email address or anything like that.

It’s just what it says, a free trading video discussing the likely direction Apple stock is going to take:

http://www.ino.com/info/333/CD34/&dp=0&l=0&campaignid=3

Enjoy!

Sometime ago I read an article which I really wish I could find now.

If I remember correctly it was written when the FTSE was riding high at well above 6,000.

It basically said that the FTSE fell as low as 3287 in March 2003 and that, according to the writer, we were “unlikely to ever see the FTSE at those sorts of levels again” (or words to that effect).

The quote stuck in my mind as I often read stock market related books and many say the same thing - markets are never too low to go lower.

And I guess what we are seeing now is severe fear in the markets and a lot of selling.

What do you think - will the FTSE fall further than that famous March 2003 low?

I wouldn’t bet against it.

In fact, I would imagine that certain people are making a lot of money from this falling market.

The first ever business opportunity I bought was Vince Stanzione’s home study course - and it was all down to an article I saw in the Sunday Observer.

Vince was the main subject in a fascinating two-page feature about spread betting the financial markets.

The article described how he had made a fortune trading a mining share (Antofagasta) and also trading the price of Gold.

The article quoted profits of several hundred thousand pounds in just three months.

I remember taking the page out of the paper and carrying it around with me, reading it and showing it to people in the pub. It struck a chord with me as I was reminded of a story I heard in the late 90s of an investment club making a fortune by spread betting the markets rather than just buying shares.

To cut a long story short, I eventually sent off for more details and received a sales letter. I then proceeded to read that letter over and over again - getting more and more excited about the possibilities of trading.

And one day, finally, I faxed off the order for Vince’s course. A couple of days later it arrived and I spent hours reading through the manual and watching the DVD.

At the beginning of this month I reloaded my trading account and started again afresh.

My last ‘try’ ended well, with me getting a 10% return on my capital over just 6 months. I had to cut it short as I was buying a house and needed all spare cash for the deposit.

So, I dug out my 2004 Stanzione course and read through it, watched the DVD and made notes. Then I decided to get an up-to-date version which just arrived today. And, well, it’s certainly been updated over the past 5 years.

Now containing 2 DVDs and a manual of well over 200 pages of quality information, this is going to keep me busy for a while.

I’ll be updating the site soon with more details but if you are interested in finding out more about Vince, check out his site at

http://www.thefintrader.com or check out my review at

Vince Stanzione, Spread Betting and First Information.

Making Money from Financial Spread Trading is the course I recommend for people who want to get into trading the markets but, like me, don’t want to be stuck in front of a computer monitor all day watching charts.

Vince’s methods are simple and take just a few minutes a day which suits me down to the ground and the results I have had have made it a very worthwhile investment.

Check out more at: http://www.thefintrader.com and watch out for more news about my results.

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!