The post below comes courtesy of my friend Blain Reinkensmeyer who runs the very popular Stock Trading To Go blog.

To be a great trader you must be disciplined. Following a set of rules can make the difference between successful story telling versus ruminating on last week’s losses.

Jesse Livermore, one of the best traders of all time, and John Paulson, one of the best traders of the last few years, both have a set of rules they follow religiously. Their success serves as your opportunity to enhance your investment savviness.

Below are the rules of both Livermore and Paulson alongside a bit more background information on who they are (hat tip Minyanville and WSJ).

Jesse Livermore, one of the greatest

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After earning hefty profits on its commodities trading for nearly 18 years, heavyweight trader Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) now finds itself on the hot seat, defending this crucial source of revenue. And while that may not be good for Goldman, it’s also bad for investors.  Let me explain…

It all started back in 1991, when J. Aron & Co., Goldman’s commodities-trading division, recommended that a large institutional client invest about $100 million in commodities.  The vehicle “du-jour” was Goldman’s own investment vehicle, the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index (now the S&P GSCI Commodity Index).

The GSCI is a 24-commodity dollar-weighted index, comprised of 70% energy (oil and natural gas), 8% industrial metals (aluminum, copper, lead, nickel and zinc), 3% precious metals (gold and silver), 14% agriculture (wheat, corn, soybeans, cotton, sugar, coffee and cocoa) and 4% livestock (cattle and hogs).

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To read a related story on how the long-term dismantling of U.S. banking regulations set the stage for the …

Bonds down. Gold up $17. Someone seems to think there is a whiff of inflation in the air. Sniff…sniff….

We’re not so sure. It seems too early to us.

But we’re not even going to think about it. Today, we’ve got to make tracks. We’re traveling.

In light of our voyage we’re turning today’s essay over to guest host Ian Mathias, of Agora Financial’s 5 Min. Forecast. He’ll take over from here…

Your family’s share of the government debt is now over half a million dollars. A record $546,668, to be exact.

That cheery Monday stat comes courtesy of a USA Today study, which claims that each American family’s share rose 12% in 2008. That’s $55,000 in new government debt last year for every US household – thousands more than the median household annual income. Here’s how it breaks down:

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Highlights include JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Citigroup Inc. (C) and Bank of America Corp. (BAC).Apparently there is no limit to the arrogance and sense of entitlement at the nation's largest banks. From today's Wall Street Journal we get this:"Some banks are prodding the government to let them use public money to help buy troubled assets from the banks themselves. Banking trade groups are lobbying the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) for permission to bid on the same assets that the banks would put up for sale as part of the government's Public Private Investment Program (PPIP). PPIP was hatched by the Obama Administration as a way for banks to sell hard-to-value loans and securities to private investors, who would get financial aid as an enticement to help them unclog bank balance sheets."Let's recap a bit. Banks make a ton ...

By now it can be argued that the most positive defining instrument of the global appetite for risk and reward is represented by gold bullion, as also seen in gold bullion exchange traded funds (ETFs), of which the biggest by far remains the SPDR Gold Shares ETF, which currently holds physical gold bullion of just less than 36m ounces, worth USD 34.5bn.

SPDR Gold Shares, which represent a proxy holding in physical gold bullion, is trading, like gold bullion itself, just 5% below dollar price highs, seen during March 2008. By the same token, silver bullion and silver ETFs are trading roughly 25% below the price high seen for the physical precious metal, also recorded just over a year ago.

The performance of gold bullion and gold ETFs has not only outclassed any other kind of publicly available and widely traded investment

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Deprecated and reduced as a financial asset, gold is fast-gaining new buyers yet remains under-invested compared to previous crises…

“FEAR, Mr. Bond, takes gold out of circulation and hoards it against the evil day,” as 007 learns from a Bank of England officer in Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger (1959).

So “in a period of history when every tomorrow may be the evil day, it is fair to say that a fat proportion of the gold dug out of one corner of the earth is at once buried again in another corner.”

Evil-day gold buying really motored since the credit collapse began in August 2007. Soaking up investment dollars worldwide, in fact, new allocations to the metal – whether trust fund or owned outright – swelled by 38% during the first quarter of 2009 compared with total demand between Jan. and March 2008, according to marketing-group the World Gold Council (WGC).

Within that figure,

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - May 18, 2009 - Zacks Equity Research highlights NovaMed, Inc. (NOVA) as the Bull of the Day and School Specialty (SCHS) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Bank of America (BAC), General Motors (GM) and Fannie Mae (FNM).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2676.

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

NovaMed, Inc. (NOVA) is an emerging healthcare services company engaged in the operation of ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) and the provision of optical products and services to eye-care professionals.

The company reported 1Q09 net income of $1.729M, up 10% y/y, which was broadly inline with expectations. Consolidated net revenue in 1Q09 was $38M, up 13.3% y/y, largely due to

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Highlights include Bank of America Corp. (BAC), General Motors Corp. (GM), Freddie Mac (FRE) and Fannie Mae (FNM).Is the Government Pressuring BAC to Revamp its Board?The federal regulators have advised Bank of America Corp. (BAC) to revamp its board of directors, according to a report published in the Wall Street Journal this morning.Per the report, the government officials also suggested that independent directors lead a reshuffling of the board, and that the board "needed more members with banking experience."There is no doubt that the board was negligent in carrying out its duties, while the bank continued to make risky bets, which ultimately resulted in its bailouts by the government. And we believe that there is a pressing need to revamp the Corporate Governance practices at the banks.But the question is, can the government create pressure ...

At 53 years of age, John A. Paulson manages about $30 billion in his hedge funds. Over 2007 and 2008, he pocketed $10 billion in profits after he correctly bet that the subprime-mortgage market would crash.  His Credit Opportunities Fund earned nearly 500% gains in that year.

In 2008, his fund returned 37%  - in a year where the typical hedge fund lost 19%.

Since last September, Paulson earned nearly $420 million shorting the stocks of some U.K.-based bank stocks - specifically Lloyds Banking Group PLC (ADR: LYG), and the former HBOS PLC (which Lloyds absorbed in January).

Paulson clearly does his homework, and now he’s turned his attention to gold.

In a recent move that garnered much industry attention, Paulson acquired an 11.3% stake in AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (ADR:

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