By Neil George,
Editor, Personal Finance

The Dow has become one wild and crazy roller coaster ride.

And most investors are helplessly dreading the next big stomach-churning plunge.

Another credit crunch? Housing woes? Unemployment? Trouble abroad? What will the next trigger be?

Why worry? The super-rich don’t. Because they’ve divorced themselves from the Dow and are making money day in and day out with investments no riskier than what you’re probably holding in your portfolio right now.

Why Dow Stocks Are a Sucker’s Game for So Many Investors

The rich get richer whether the stock market goes up, down, or sideways.

In fact, that kind of consistency is how many of today’s super-wealthy got super-rich in the first place.

I know, because as a former top investment banker for some of the wealthiest individuals in the world...

I helped them do it!

My name is Neil George. And today, instead of helping the rich get richer, I’m showing thousands of investors like you how to take advantage of the same safe, money-multiplying techniques the ultra-rich use to grow their wealth.

In good times and bad.

The simple truth is that the Wall Street system is set up so that average investors get average returns.

How could it be otherwise?

Their stocks lose money when the market goes down, and make enough when it goes up to keep them interested and “in the game.”

Meanwhile, their “safe money” in bonds ekes out a few percentage points.

The financial system would collapse if everyone knew about and invested in the little-known stocks and bonds that shamelessly outperform the market averages by a country mile.

However, you now have the opportunity to join us in enjoying these extraordinary profits (up to 10 times what average investors make).

All we need to do is clear up a few misconceptions that have been drummed into us by stock brokers, bankers, and their all-too-willing lapdogs in the news media.

Myth #1:  Mutual Funds and ETFs Are Great Investing Tools

These days, you can’t talk to a financial planner—or pick up a personal finance magazine—without hearing how you should be invested in mutual funds. Or their new overhyped cousin, exchange traded funds (ETFs).

But have you seen the commissions and fees they charge? Even a few percentage points means your money has to work that much harder—just to break even.

Plus, most funds are a ticket to guaranteed mediocrity.

Look, there’s usually no way on God’s green earth that a mix of good and bad stocks can outperform a list of purely good stocks.

Of course, many investors couldn’t pick a good winning stock with a copy of next month’s Wall Street Journal in front of them.

We at Personal Finance, however, seem to have had a good bit of success in the prognostication department. We specialize in finding stocks that fly high above the market averages (which most mutual funds fail to beat anyway).

For example, Samsung, which we’ve recommended for the past 5 years, has returned a generous 437% during that time.

And although many funds include some Samsung in their holdings, precious few (if any) have equaled it in multiplying shareholders’ money more than 5 times over in 5 years.

So why water down your portfolio with hundreds of mediocre equities? Let we who toil at Personal Finance filter out the also-rans and fill your portfolio with only the best of the best.

For example, here’s something that’s better than mutual funds and better than plain stocks...

Why It Pays to Be a Partner, Not Just a Shareholder

For shareholders, management doles out—usually with an eyedropper—dividends from what’s left after everyone else gets paid.

Partners, on the other hand, get paid right off the top.

That’s what we love about energy company partnerships such as master limited partnerships (MLPs) and publicly traded limited liability companies (LLCs)...

We get paid first!

By law, partnerships like these can reinvest only a small part of their profits—usually 20%. The rest must be given to the limited partners.

And that’s you!

That’s why, with partnerships, you get paid extraordinarily high dividends (5% to 8%). Plus, those dividends increase by 5% to 15% a year.

And capital appreciation? You bet! That’s why, for total return, partnerships have left stocks in the dust, returning 25.9% a year since 2000.

Best of all, they offer huge tax advantages.

While most corporations lose from 15% to 35% of their profits to taxes, partnerships don’t pay a single penny in corporate taxes.

Better still, 80-90% of your returns aren’t subject to taxes until you sell.

So at worst, you get to defer taxes for years!

Find out more in a FREE Special Report that I’ll send you with your no-risk trial subscription to Personal Finance. It’s called Partnership In Profit, and features my 5 favorite energy partnerships (the very best and safest way to play the red-hot energy sector). For example...

• The Texas-based oil and gas company with practically zero drilling risk. Because it only drills on properties it owns—proven producers with 30 to 40 good years left on them.
  
• Ship-shape profits in natural gas. This company owns the ships that natural gas producers must use to get their gas to market. It’s a hugely profitable business now that gas can be liquefied and shrunk 610 times over for easy transport. Leases are already signed, sealed, and delivered—so profits are locked in for years to come.
  
• Makes money every single time oil flows. This company operates in four of the most profitable segments of the oil business: crude oil storage, crude oil pipelines, refined products pipelines, and refined products storage. They make money every which way based on the volume of oil pumped through or stored, so the price of oil doesn’t matter at all to them. It’s a tough market to get started in, so there’s no significant competition on the horizon.

Myth #2:  Bonds Are Safe, But They Won’t Make You Rich

Huh? Bonds won’t make you rich?

Bonds made me rich.

They made my clients rich (or a lot richer).

And now they’re making many of my readers rich.

Yet most people continue to look at bonds as safe, boring investments best suited for widows and orphans.

But believe me—the rich (and their investment bankers and bond traders) know better.

I spent years in the belly of the beast as an institutional banker. I helped the world’s wealthiest investors make money—a lot of money—no matter what the stock market did.

Because the right bonds (we’re not talking your father’s T-bills) can give you both high yields as well as eye-popping capital growth.

“The man who owned New Zealand”

That’s what they called me when, in the 1990s, on behalf of my clients, I was the world’s biggest holder of New Zealand debt, controlling hundreds of millions of dollars in Kiwi Bonds.

After poor fiscal management in the 1980s, I saw that New Zealand’s economic reforms were working and a dramatic recovery was inevitable.

My clients enjoyed lovely monthly dividend checks while the currency doubled against the dollar, yields were driven down, and the prices of our bonds soared.

By the time we sold in 1997, I had created a billion dollars in new wealth for my bank and its customers. (Do you think any of them even remember what the stock market did that year?)

More recently, my South African bonds yielded a whopping 17%. Our total return: a whopping 140%.

Remember in 2000 to 2002 when the S&P lost a total of 35.1%? My subscribers were up an average of 20.81% per year for 3 years—thanks to the all-weather bonds we held.

And last year, if you owned medium-term Treasuries, the 0.6% you made on them didn’t even keep up with inflation.

But our bonds would have made you an average of nearly 30%—and been utterly un-scathed by the deepest drop of the Dow.

We believe in getting paid

What I love about high-performance bonds is the big, juicy dividends, year in and year out.

You see, at Personal Finance, we believe in getting paid. (Don’t you expect payment when you do a job or provide something to someone?)

But most stocks dole out miniscule dividends while management keeps the cash to finance their lavish lifestyle and invest as they see fit.

You’re expected to wait for your reward if the stock’s price goes up.

Instead, we agree with John D. Rockefeller, who said: “My greatest joy is watching my dividend checks come in.” (And he didn’t do too badly.)

What’s more—you don’t have to give up the joys of capital appreciation...

These bonds don’t need rate cuts to soar in value

Most bonds, such as Treasuries, don’t go up in value unless interest rates go down.

But not our bonds!

Over the years, our bonds have appreciated like hot stocks. For two reasons.

One is credit. If a bond issuer improves their creditworthiness, the price of our bond rises.

So we always look for bond issuers who are improving their creditworthiness. And judging by the way our bonds have been going up, we’re doing a pretty good job of it.

The second reason bonds appreciate is competition. When stocks don’t look very strong (and they sure don’t right now), investors are more drawn to bonds. That means bond issuers can lower their yields and still get buyers.

And lower yields means your higher-yielding bonds are worth more.

I could talk about the glories of bonds forever. But Personal Finance isn’t just about bonds so I must move on.

So here’s what I suggest...

Give Personal Finance a try for the ridiculously low price of just $39.95 a year (or only $79 for 2 years), and I’ll send you a FREE Special Report: The Hidden Bond Market.

In it, you’ll discover how the right bonds can ignite your portfolio no matter what the market’s doing. You’ll also get complete details on my 3 current favorite high-performance bond picks.

Grab your copy and get the kind of gains that will irritate the heck out of Wall Street’s stock peddlers.

Myth #3:  Big Is Beautiful

Everybody wants you to buy big stocks.

The big companies with the multi-million dollar investor relations budgets and big double-page color ads want you to buy their stock.

The brokerage houses only follow and recommend the big stocks because: a) it’s easier than following a bazillion small stocks, and b) the big companies pay them huge underwriting fees.

The media only cover big stocks because: a) small companies aren’t big advertisers and b) small companies aren’t big news.

What an opportunity!

Here’s what I love about small stocks:

Small stocks outperform large stocks. Since 2000, small cap value stocks have outperformed large caps by an amazing 100%!

It’s easier to find big bargains. Because so few people know about them. And because big stocks have usually already seen their most explosive growth. (To double, Microsoft would have to take over the world.)

Small stocks pay bigger dividends. You get paid to watch them grow.

Small stocks can keep going up even when the market goes down.

No wonder the rich fill their portfolios with small stocks. But, of course, they can afford to have top-notch financial advisors constantly on the lookout for little-known small bargains.

Well, now you can afford it, too!

My Personal Finance research team and I scour the planet for the best, most ready to explode, most downturn-proof small stocks.

You’ll find 5 of the best in another Special Report that’s FREE with your no-risk trial subscription to Personal Finance. It’s called Small is Beautiful: And Also Your Best Investment, and includes...

Why London Bridge won’t fall down. This construction company is helping rebuild the 70,000 bridges that desperately need repairs. And after the tragic collapse of that bridge in Minneapolis, state and municipal officials are beating down its door to make sure it doesn’t happen in their city.

Cash from carburetors. No one wants to trash a perfectly good multi-million-dollar fighter jet or tank just because it’s a few years old and you can’t get parts anymore. That’s why this company, which makes upgrade parts for aging warplanes and tanks, makes money hand over fist—in good times and bad.

Just plane profits. When airlines can’t afford to pay millions of dollars in cash for a new airplane (which is often these days), they turn to this company for a lease. No wonder it’s able to offer 8% dividends!

Secret government giveaway. The government wants people who live in the country to be hooked up and wired in—and they’re willing to dole out big bucks to get it done. That’s a bonanza for rural phone companies like this Midwest provider of landline, wireless, and Internet service.

The Secret of Our Success (and soon, yours!)

The secret of our success—trouncing the S&P year after year, 7 first-place awards from the Newsletter and Electronic Publishers Association—is almost embarrassing.

We simply bust our brains year after year to avoid getting stuck in the usual choice between safety and high profit.

During the worst of the tech crash  of 2000-2002, our core holdings actually rose, and our readers wound up about 75% ahead of investors who followed standard Wall Street advice.

We do it simply by making ordinary investing extraordinary.

For example, we buy utilities from time to time. They’re sound. Come hell or low water, the world will insist on turning on the lights, cooking dinner, and taking a nice drink of water.

But that’s not enough. We also scour the globe to find utilities so profitable, they’re fat takeover targets. So, we get the safety and still cash in on the growth.

If this kind of thinking and investing makes sense to you, I hope you’ll join our thriving little band of investors.

It’s just $39.95 a year ($79 for 2), and with a full moneyback guarantee, there’s just no way to lose. (We’re so sure you’ll love Personal Finance that, crazy as it sounds, we offer a full refund anytime—right up to your last issue.)

“Triple Your Money in 22 days!”
“Secrets of the Rockefellers Revealed!”
“Become a Billionaire in Your Spare Time!”
by Neil George, Editor, Personal Finance

How many of these pitches do you get per day? I get hundreds.

But before you even think about putting one red cent down for any such offer, ask yourself: “Why are these guys selling their secrets?”

If they really worked, the writers would be crazy to sell them... and their publishers would be nuts to spend their money advertising these schemes and getting just a few thousand subscriptions. Instead, they could invest their ad dollars in the NYSE, using their priceless gems of hidden wisdom to loot the market of its riches.

You know why they don’t: None of their cockeyed gimmicks work.

I’ve been around many or most of the guys who’ve developed these harebrained schemes, and I’ve known many of their ad writers (who were copyboys not long ago but now are noted gurus of the printed word). I also happen to know that none of these guys have ever worked the markets day in and day out... or at all, in some cases.

Instead they’ve found it much easier to make a buck telling a story. What’s more, they don’t actually have to tell a good story or even a true one, thanks to the First Amendment. So they keep playing the game—and making money in print and online.

Done in by Muck Fatigue

After 19 years in the cold, dark heart of the banking and brokerage business, I finally got tired of the market muck and said to heck with it.

Through lots of hard work, I had become what they call “independently wealthy,” so I had enough of a cushion to quit and start spending most of my time helping you.

(But I prefer to live on my current income, not my nest egg. So I still spend some time on the side, polishing my own portfolio. That means I’m a regular investor, just like you.)

I really enjoy writing and editing Personal Finance. The job is a big plum in the investment field, and I get a charge out of just walking into my office every morning. The actual work doesn’t drain me, it energizes me.

Sure, there are a bazillion details to sift through. But the basics are pretty simple...

Avoid Mirages

1. The main secret of the trade is this: There is no secret. There is only intelligent hard work—and a tiny touch of luck now and then.

The only “system” I’ve ever seen work for more than six months is reading and listening to what’s happening—and then piecing together solid information into a rationale for buying or selling.

2. Stick to what’s likely. Trillions of dollars have been lost over the years by guys chasing a mirage of what might happen (like the next boom or bust). Maybe once in thirty years, you’ll see a multi-year buying frenzy–or a total crash like the silver collapse of 1980. It’s a lousy bet.

Yes, you can make a fortune if you catch a financial tidal wave at its peak. But here at Personal Finance, we make very nice money on safe bets, and none of us has a heart condition or high blood pressure.

3. There is no stock market. Or bond or commodities market, for that matter. There is only a market of individual stocks. And others for bonds and commodities.

You will go insane long before you “figure out the stock market.” Picture a gigantic dog fight with a million pit bulls snarling and fighting over ten thousand pieces of meat. Who can predict the outcome of such a scene?

Well, the markets are like that—except the chunks of meat are stocks, bonds, commodities, funds, and currencies... which often come packaged as mutual funds, REITS, annuities, futures, options, trusts, IPOs, shorts, and big boxes making funny ticking noises, labeled DERIVATIVES. And the whole hodgepodge changes hands several thousand times a second. Trust me, I know them. I used to build them.

The “Sure Thing” of the ’90s Is the Quicksand of Today

It’s getting tougher and tougher to not get whacked out there. With the market indexes sliding around, a lot more folks are seeing red on their brokerage statements.

One of the biggest problems is “oldthink,” the once-reliable Great Truths of the markets. You may have absorbed from your grandfather some foundational principles that today can drag you into chapter thirteen:

• Let’s start with the bearded adage, Buy quality and hold it forever. It was a Socratic idea in the golden era of General Motors, AT&T, Kodak, and Bethlehem Steel. But today I have a major problem with “hold and hope.”

Sure, you might fall in love with a great company that rises year after year while paying a reasonable dividend. But though you may end up accumulating a lot of that stock, you can no longer just buy it and hibernate. The markets will pass you by in one of those sudden spurts that can give you six years’ profits in six months—if you aren’t asleep at the switch.

Today you have to scrutinize your holdings every quarter as if they’re all potential new buys. You do this by taking your statement in hand and going line by line. If you can’t convince yourself why you’d buy each and every company all over again, its time to look for an exit. Don’t get lulled into complacency. The days of yore are gone.

• Next, there’s Pharmaceuticals are a fail-safe defense in troubled times. No longer true. In fact, most of the big pharmas have recently cycled from stable and boring... to hyperexciting... to stumbling and sliding. Think about Pfizer, for instance. Its average loss for the trailing five years has been triple the losses of the S&P 500. Eek!
  
• A little better is, Consumer staples are great in any weather. This one tends to work OK, but you must be choosy. You can’t just buy the usual suspects. I’m often kind of jolted by how many intelligent investors will buy a huge pile of consumer staples with hardly a glance at price and business conditions.

Take Procter & Gamble.  Ever since James Gamble whipped up his first batch of air-fluffed Ivory soap in 1863—deliberately, by the way—P&G has been a PR darling.

Unfortunately, a zillion other investors like it, too.  They have bid up the price beyond what I think is reasonable.

Worse, it no longer treats its shareholders well, and thus has been a crummy performer for years. Until management repents, take a pass.

• Last, there is Own real things, not paper. Well, I can certainly respect the sentiment that stocks can be beaten into trash by greedy brokers... and ignorant markets... and crooks in swivel chairs who run the parent companies. That's one reason I love bonds: they represent real assets, not promises.

But not all commodities are magic.

Gold, for example, is in snoresville. For me, paper always glitters more than gold. I would even say flat out, gold is the only raw good you shouldn’t hold today. Investors who owned gold for the last 10–20 years are trailing way behind cash, with barely a 5% annual return per average year, and do you really want to bet your hard-earned dollars that what comes up won't come (tumbling) down?

Then how about petrol? During the past few years, we’ve all done well buying the great oil companies, especially from Canada. Those who bought and held the usual, such as Exxon Mobil, would have made a nice annual return. But that return would still be only a few percentage points higher than the S&P 500.

My advice: Dump oldthink. Forget the ancient formulas. Get on board with Personal Finance and stay two jumps ahead of the pack.

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We Make It Simple for You

Personal Finance slices through the chaos and trashes 99% of the securities on the market.

Out of the deserving 1% that remain, we select a mere handful for your attention.

These are presented in a variety of eye-opening articles over time, but the four constant categories are:

1. Our front page article on the biggest new opportunity. In every issue (twice monthly) we spotlight a trend that’s too juicy to ignore. You’ll get very specific recommendations for both buying and selling. (I won’t insult you here by cherry-picking our very best finds and presenting them as typical, but I assure you, we’ve dug up our share of double-your-money doozies.)

Of course, you may not be able to invest in everything, but you can be aware of the stuff that’s truly worthwhile. We always go for value; we don’t chase the latest flow of “hot” money in the markets.

2. Our Growth Track portfolio. Our target is to beat the S&P 500—by a wide margin.

Our methodology is to avoid the S&P, for the most part. At this writing, we do hold Monsanto, Chevron, Southern Co., and Verizon, but as I said above, it’s hard to make real money when you drift with the herd.

Our criteria:

• Once we decide on the best sectors to hit, we work very, very hard to find undervalued stocks and bonds. You may think that’s almost impossible, given today’s overpriced markets. It’s not. If you patiently look under enough rocks, you will find gold. Why? Because the herd is a herd, and they often get spooked like the cattle they are. At the whisper of a rumor of trouble, they stampede toward the far horizon. A few weeks later, when the adrenaline rush is over, they calm down and come mooing their way back to join the Personal Finance subscribers who have been quietly grazing on the good green stuff.
  
• Alfred Adler once said, “Trust only movement.” We agree in spades. We won’t recommend anything to you until it starts moving, no matter how sterling the underlying company is. Most investment advisors will gladly tell you to buy something because it really oughtta start rising soon... It’s written in the stars!... It’ll surely begin to climb Any Day Now. Alas, you can lose a lot of money waiting for a “sure thing” to get traction.
  
• We don’t like to get caught in cyclical downdrafts, so we stay diversified. Our six main areas are: consumer, energy/environment, financial services, health care, technology, and commodity producers.

One more note on our growth portfolio: It’s actually three portfolios that build on each other. Depending on your tastes, you can choose among our Long Haulers, Cash Cows, or Nibblers. (We’ll explain these handy categories immediately when you subscribe.)

3. Our Income Report.

You might call it our “Lucrative Income Portfolio.”

It consists of three very normal categories: Stocks and Preferreds, Bonds, and Cash & Money Market Funds.

But the angels are in the details. Right now, we favor Canadian energy trusts, emerging market bond funds, infrastructure and agriculture stocks, and a few mortgage-related stocks. Right away, you can see our concept of safety includes truckloads of cash—of any nationality. We do not discriminate against any currency based on color or national origin.

Yes, we like fat yields. But our bottom line is total returns that you can take to the bank... in Bora Bora.

4. Our Advantage Portfolio—a collection of exciting, high-return deals of the moment. This is not a “balanced” portfolio at all, but a short list of very hot stocks with a high-risk/high-reward profile. They aren’t designed as a basic portfolio for anyone, but as a boost factor to add excitement and growth to your core holdings. They often include a few short sales.

These are not rigid, all-or-nothing portfolios. They are simply flexible models for you to adapt. But in the pages of Personal Finance, we always give you our very best specific recommendations on what and when to buy and when to sell.

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More Helpful Features

To speed your understanding of your first issue, we will send you an introductory report, Profit Now. It will give you a few paragraphs each on the other departments you’ll find in our 12 semi-monthly pages:

• Marketwatch, the brief summary that tells you in seconds whether it’s been a good two weeks or a bad two weeks!... and why! Everybody reads this first. (Great for those days when you don’t have time to read all 12 pages.)
  
• On The Money—a guest page written by various experts in money management, retirement planning, tax strategies, stock analysis, and so on—less glamorous subjects, to be sure, but must-read backgrounders. We live in a messy world, and we don’t ever want you to be blindsided by monetary or legal problems you didn’t know about.
  
• Online Updates on portfolio news and other items of interest at least once a day.
  
• Article Update—a page on news about past recos that command current attention.
  
• Web Exclusive Capsule Advisory—Each issue features a highlighted capsule that provides newsworthy nuggets of practical advice, which is expanded on at www.pfnewsletter.com.
  
• Online—Read PF the Saturday before the issue date—on the Internet. Just go online and download the issue from www.pfnewsletter.com. Also you’ll find an archive of all the past issues and a useful search function. It’s a great tool to stay on top of investments.

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How Can You Make Solid Money in a Sideways Market?
By The Research Team

Most people can’t.

Most people are expecting the economy to “get back to normal” soon and start giving them fat profits on any dartboard selection from the Dow.

Ah, yes. And soon thereafter, Amelia Earhart will show up, the national debt will get paid off, and the Sunni Triangle will revert to the Garden of Eden.

All right, so things could return to the good old days. But don’t hold your breath. Today, most investors are living in a dream world, betting on the romantic scenarios issued nonstop by the permabulls of Lower Manhattan—and (after taxes) losing money.

Profit from the Panic Paradox

The more confusion in the markets, the more mistakes happen—and the more that perfectly good stocks are dropped for no good reason.

Yes, perhaps 95% of stocks and bonds are dropped for good reasons. But the rest tend to be victims of confusion, chaos, or downright panic.

That’s where the new Personal Finance comes in. We now have an editorial team like no other you’ve seen. It comes with a combined track record that has been beating the Dow, the other newsletter gurus, and even the great Warren Buffett himself.

My guys have proven themselves to be extremely sharp at spotting the 5% of investments that are ripe for resurrection. It’s so amazing what you can find in the NYSE dumpster.

Maybe the Market Dives Again. So What?

As patriotic Americans, we at Personal Finance dearly hope the markets rise long term.

But short term, we really don’t give a wet hanky what happens. We make money going north, south, clockwise, or upside-down. If the good times start to roll, we’ll be the first to break out the champagne, but in the meantime, we’re thriving on pure action. We make money on anything that wiggles.

Here are four ways we do it.

Sucess Secret #1

The success of Personal Finance is built on this credo: Yes, it is possible to find a needle in a haystack.

Sometimes we feel like Madame Curie, who spent four years distilling countless tons of uranium ore and ended up with just enough radium to fill the tip of a teaspoon.

Sure, it’s messy work, sifting through 10,153 U.S. stocks. That’s why hardly anyone does it. But that’s what it takes to find the few stocks that keep climbing while everything else falls.

As a team, we spend most of our days sifting through very large haystacks. And looking under lots of rocks. What makes it even harder is that we can’t allow ourselves to build on other people’s work. It’s too unreliable. For instance, you may be surprised to know that we never read brokerage analysts’ reports. Why?

1. Because they aren’t really evaluations. They’re thinly disguised sales promotions. They seldom make clear the scary side of a stock. They’re junk.

2. The stocks they analyze are too popular! Too many investors are playing with them. It’s hard to guess the direction of a feather in a tornado, and that’s what you have in the NYSE, AMEX, and NASDAQ.

So we spend long hours putting the entire stock market through grid after grid, sniffing out the lesser-known, often smaller stocks that will defy gravity and withstand the next whirlwind. Nobody does more spadework than we do. But the extra work keeps us #1.

Success Secret #2

Be even more paranoid than Joe Market. Buy real assets before he does.

Now, it’s nice to be rational, but remember: Joe isn’t. So to stay ahead of Joe, you sometimes have to act just a little crazier than he does.

Here is the current opportunity: Joe has been burnt on paper assets. His trust in them is halfway to hell. Joe is ready to bite like a trout at the next real asset that gets air time on CNBC three days running.

At any time, that could skyrocket the price of platinum, oil, or tall silos stuffed with soybeans. Whatever. Just make sure that when the panic buying starts, you’re already at the head of the line before Joe arrives.

Again, we expect to help you with that because the time is very ripe for a massive shift to real assets—many of which are rapidly vanishing forever.

When Joe finally figures out that stocks are no longer in glamour mode, he will moo his way with the herd toward greener pastures with real grass, not paper options on shares of a feed company in Hoboken.

Success Secret #3

You can make money faster on the way down than on the way up.

There are oceans of overpriced stocks today that richly deserve—are even begging—to be sold short or get plastered with put options. We’ll try to get you nicely comfortable with that, primarily in our Advantage Portfolio.

From time to time we will give you the opportunity to make a quick killing by selling something short—because sometimes it’s irresistible! And no, it won’t put you in the same moral bag as Hezbollah, al-Qaida, and the ratfink who invented the income tax. Not at all. Investors who buy puts or sell short provide a needed and valuable service to the markets.

Yes, we’ll admit that short sellers can be sharks sometimes. But in well over 90% of cases, short selling is like the safety valve on your pressure cooker, letting off excess steam continuously. If there’s no valve, pressure can build (a stock price can inflate wildly) until finally there’s an explosion, and great damage is done (the stock crashes and perhaps brings down the company).

If you want to make money in both directions, you’ll find that profits actually come to you faster with put options because stocks tend to fall faster than they rise. Bear markets are naturally shorter and move faster. But remember, short selling is something we do only when a stock has turned south and it’s a slam dunk. And we never do it without a snug stop-loss.

Success Secret #4

Whenever the markets are not trending up, you can take them out of play. Don’t put your tail between your legs or sneak away. We’ll show you how to more than double your profits with market-neutralizing techniques like these two:

• Buy some defensive or countercyclical stocks, companies that profit from bad times.

You’ll learn to love our favorite tire retreaders, video rental stores, car repair chains, vocational schools, food/beverage stocks, etc.

• Get bulletproof.

Now and then, we will suggest twin-investment methods, like covered calls, spreads, or straddles. They protect you from market ups and downs. In the past, many conservative investors shied away from any kind of insurance against market gyrations. Now, they are just part of the arsenal of the careful and well-equipped, investor.

We don’t offer them every month. They are not the core of our strategy. But when the overall market is giving everyone the yips, these methods can put you in a class by yourself, collecting very nice profits while other folks are pulling their hair out.

You don’t have to float slowly downstream wherever the Dow takes you. You can recover losses safely and quickly. Whether you’re a beat-up bull, a wary bear, or a hungry hawk, you’ll find Personal Finance a constant feast. Reply today.

Sincerely,

Walter N. Pearce

Publisher, Personal Finance

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