With all the attention on gold recently I wanted to bring in Justin Tazi from TradeGoldOnline.com to give us something to think about regarding making gold a valid money management strategy…what are YOUR thoughts? Let Justin and the rest of the world know your thoughts by leaving a comment!

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With the proliferation of online trading over the last decade, and the fears of being robbed by “evil” investment managers such as the likes of Bernard Madoff it is no wonder why so many individuals are attracted to the concept of managing their own investments.  It is interesting to note that Madoff will reach the ripe old age of 221 years old when he finishes doing his time for stealing billions of dollars out of hundreds of people.  When it comes to trading the markets however, it is crucial to recognize that as a trader you are faced with the

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his fruit cup for a pack a smokes, because it looks like Mr. Madoff is headed to the big house. We talked about Madoff quite a bit when the news broke. I would say that the majority of Trader’s Blog visitors screamed that Madoff should be locked up, but that the investors he worked with should have never expected such outlandish returns.

CNN just broke this story…

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Madoff sentenced to 150 years - Federal judge gives maximum sentence to Ponzi mastermind following his apology and victims’ request for life sentence.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — A federal judge sentenced Bernard Madoff, the convicted mastermind of the largest and most sweeping Ponzi scheme ever, to the maximum sentence of 150 years in federal court Monday.

Judge Denny Chin of U.S. District Court in New York announced the sentence just moments after Madoff apologized to his victims.

“I live

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U.S. stock futures pointed to a modestly higher open on Monday as investors looked to new data later in the holiday-shortened week for clues over the direction of the recession-hit economy.

U.S. stocks have run up as much as 40 percent since early March but have drifted recently as investors looked for signs to justify earlier optimism over an economic economy that partly drove the rally.

“The focus will be on the economic data in this abbreviated week,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partner in New York. “What we are going to see is a market that is going to respond to the economic data, numbers that should continue to indicate improvement ”

The main focus later this week will be the June jobs report set for Thursday instead of Friday, when U.S. markets will be closed due to the U.S. Independence Day holiday.

Other key economic data will include the

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Back in January, I wrote an article about an antique stock certificate handsigned by Bernard Madoff being sold on eBay (EBAY) for $100,000. Now another Bernie Madoff stock certificate listing has appeared on eBay, but this time the price has dropped significantly to a starting price of only $1,000. This is a decline of $99,000 in only three months.

Goldman Targeting PE With Another Fund; Current Media Unplugs IPO Plans; Tech Mahindra Taking Majority of Satyam; Victims Push For Madoff Bankruptcy; Express Scripts Buys WellPoint Unit; Citi May Sell More Japan Assets; Oil Drops on Energy Agency Forecast

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) created a $5.5 billion fund to purchase private-equity assets on the secondary market, Bloomberg reported. The GS Vintage Fund V - Goldman’s fifth private-equity-targeting fund - will acquire portfolios ranging from $1 million to $1 billion. Citing “current market conditions,” Current Media Inc., owner of youth-focused network Current TV, has withdrawn its plans for a $100 million initial public offering. “It’s ...

Mark Twain once said that

 

“the inability to forget is infinitely more devastating than the inability to remember.”

 

Traders, after they have traded for a while, have a vast store of memories (boy do I have some!) that can affect the way they trade. They’ve had trades that worked perfectly as planned, even ones that provided twice as much profit as originally projected.  But they’ve also had perfect set-ups go terribly wrong.

 

The question then becomes, which trade do you remember when you are about to enter the next one? Your worst trade? Your best one?  Your last one?

 

We have the free will to choose what we think about in all areas of our lives and this same free will is also available to the trader.  What you do with it can make a difference in

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C.H. Robinson Stock Moving; Report: Rough Year Ahead for Latin America; Foreign Direct Investing in China Falling; Seattle Post-Intelligencer Goes Online-Only; U.S. to Seize $100 Million From Madoffs; Foreigners Tossing Treasuries; MGM Antes Up

Shares of C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. (CHRW) climbed as high as 4.8% in trading yesterday (Monday) before closing at $44.03 a share. For the past five days, the company’s stock jumped nearly 16%. Money Morning Contributing Editor Horacio Marquez recommended investors buy C.H. Robinson’s stock yesterday in his popular Buy/Sell/Hold series. A team of economists at Morgan Stanley (MS) believes Latin America’s economy may contract 4% this year, which would ...

Thursday March 12, 2009 Navivest

Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty today to 11 counts of defrauding investors of billions of dollars, and was ordered to jail to await sentencing. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 16, 2009.

Making a statement, Madoff said, “I am actually grateful for this opportunity to publicly comment about my crimes, for which I am deeply sorry and ashamed. As the years went by, I realized my risk, and this day would inevitably come.”

Madoff was able to pull of his scam in which he basically took in money from investors, but never invested it as promised, after the economy took a dive and investors worried about market conditions, started pulling money out.

Tags: madoff

Thursday March 11, 2009 Navivest

Bernard Madoff is due in Federal court today and is expected to plead guilty to eleven felony charges that could eventually result in a sentence of 150 years in prison. He may also be facing some of the investors he is accused of bilking, which could be their only opportunity to confront Madoff, as if he pleads guilty, there won’t be a trial.

While he probably won’t utter much more than “guilty,” this would be the first time that Bernard Madoff will be speaking in public about the scandal.

U.S. District Judge Denny Chin said that, assuming Madoff goes forward with plans for a guilty plea, he will be giving Madoff’s clients an opportunity to challenge his conclusion whether to accept a guilty plea to securities fraud and perjury charges, among others, as well as letting Madoff’s clients challenge his decision as to whether Madoff should be

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The fraud scandal surrounding Allen Stanford and his consortium of investment firms grew to shocking proportions today (Thursday) as it spread its tentacles from the United States and the Caribbean to Latin America and Europe.

The sordid web of allegations against Stanford grew from outright fraud and security violations to possible connections with Mexican drug cartels, money laundering, and canceled cricket matches as people scrambled to get their money back from firms linked to the Texas billionaire.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Security Exchange Commission, already reeling from the shock generated by the alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme fraud blamed on Wall Street veteran Bernard Madoff, could offer no assurances that more scandals would not occur.

When asked whether there would be more fraud cases of the scale and scope of Madoff and Stanford, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters: “It’s hard to say. I’d like

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