Trading From Main Street

[Toni Hansen]

Hi Scott,

Reading and watching... always a great part of the learning process =) Your concerns are well-warranted. If people don't think you're insane or class you with the old ladies heading to bingo or those off to vegas to waste away their hard-earned savings then they think it's their duty to give you the latest "sure thing" to invest in and trade. Even the guy I had installing a window for me this fall was trying to tell me I just had to check out his wife's company cause they were so close to a breakthrough in such and such a technology. 5 years ago no one really cared... it wasn't such a trend, aka "fad." At any rate, overcoming the streotypes can be difficult so the best way to beat them is just to educate yourself and gain the confidence necessary to succeed.

You asked me about my office check list. First, always have a backup. For me this means another inet connection in case the first one goes down. I just use a dial up as a backup on my laptop and find cable inet works great as a primary line... Reliability is imperative though.

As far as monitors go... I have 4 I use most of the time but could get away with 3 easily. (We have about 10 total in the office but don't generally run them all at once.) I like to keep an eye on as many of the stocks in my watch list as I can at once. It's easier that way to catch changes. You don't have to invest a lot for them either. Something like View Mate or the works just as well as a Trinitron and while flat screens may be what the coolest of the cool have I haven't felt the need to cough up the extra bucks for them. (Besides, then what would my cats sleep on all day? =)

For a broker I would recommend direct access. Since charts are very important to me in the type of trading I do, I use Real Tick 3 software which is provided by a Terra Nova broker such as Maverick Trading (http://www.mavericktrading.html) While there are a number of direct access brokers, I find RT3 has the best charting platform out there.

As for a computer... well, I need a new one of those myself now =) I'll let you know what I end up getting... Right now I believe I have a 600 mhz AMD processor and appian graphics card. You'd think that since I'd been around computers since they were just big boxes with lights I'd know more about them but I'm afraid I just rely on what others have told me. Perhaps we can get a few people to give their opinions.. hint hint readers =)

Well, I should take off and get the rest of my work done so take care!

All my best,
Toni Hansen