5-Star Valentine's Day Gifts on a Financial Meltdown Budget.

by Natalie Pace.

What do women really want? Aside from a warrior of the light, who is Casanova in bed, Gandhi on the world stage, listens as deeply as Charlie Rose, funny as Will Farrell and looks like Hugh Jackman, not much! However, each year, we do a survey so that women can update their desires for the year, and each year, we are surprised at how consistent their desires are.

For starters, at the top of the list for gifts desired by gals in 2009 were the perennial favorites, massage and pampering and a couples getaway vacation. Surprisingly, however, the Apple iPhone and the Natalie Pace Investing Retreat were equally as desired. (Of course, the retreat is held in the sunny beach town of Santa Monica, so it’s part educational investment and part couples’ get away!) Other popular faves included clean energy stocks, gold mining stocks, diamonds, gym or Weight Watchers membership and opera, ballet or concert tickets.

Notably missing are flowers and chocolate! That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy them – just that they shouldn’t be considered "the gift." So, unless you’re combining your massage and pampering and strawberries and cream with chocolate and flowers, the calories and eye candy won’t delight on their own.

So, below are some creative ways for the financially challenged man to become all of the men that she wants in one spectacular night full of love and fireworks! If you become the star of this romantic comedy known as her dream Valentine’s Day, it doesn’t really matter what the setting is. She’ll be gazing so deeply into your eyes, and melting in your hand, you’ll wonder why you never tried this easy recipe sooner!

1. Warrior of the light: For one night, try on peace, love and understanding. Notice when your testosterone is crowding out all of the conversation and turn it off! Look deeply into her eyes, reach for her hand, kiss her hand and then tell her that you’ve been thinking of donating some time and money to charity. Does she have any suggestions?
   
   
2. Casanova: Casanova knows the fine art of having a shower, a shave, a haircut and then dressing dapper and divine. Shower like a forensic investigator, making sure all of the areas that you’d like her to kiss are clean enough for a white glove test. Don’t forget your neck! Forego the cheap aftershave. Don’t put on the same underwear you were wearing before the shower!
   
   
3. Gandhi: Now, you might think this is a repeat of #1, but it’s not. This is a night of high expectations, so you need to practice your peacekeeping persona to keep the frequency on extreme love. If she cries tears of joy when you hand her that iPhone that she really, really wants, but then comments that she can’t help but remember how disappointing it was last year when you came home from work at 9:00 p.m. when the supper was cold, say, "I love you." "I’m sorry." (Think Gandhi to yourself to help you remember that your job is to keep the peace and focus on getting to the freedom of love and hugs!) Tell her: "The night is only beginning! Wait till you see what I have next in store for you!" No matter what she says or does, do not jump into a fight!
   
   
4. Charlie Rose: One of the coolest nights I remember with my boyfriend was the evening when we came home early, crawled into bed and he asked me questions about all of my childhood adventures for about an hour. The whole time, I was lying in his arms and our feet were massaging each other. I’m sure it felt like five hours to him, but I was so happy! So, get cuddly and start asking her questions, and time yourself, so that you don’t try for the first kiss until at least 20 minutes into a deep conversation. During the interview, your input should really be limited to, "Really? And then what happened?" while staring deeply into her eyes, so that she knows you are really interested in hearing what she is saying.
   
   
5. Will Farrell: The easiest way to be a comic, if you aren’t naturally funny, is to have some comedy in the room. Whether you find a way to dress in a sheet as a toga or dress the family dog in a tutu, just try one little thing that will make her giggle.
   
   
6. Hugh Jackman: Hugh’s appeal is as a manly man who can fix anything and then kiss you until your lips fall off . If the night starts with you having done something major on the Honey To Do list that you surprise her with, that will go a long way to putting her in the mood for a fantastic lover’s night in!
   
   
7. Be Yourself: Chances are that if you get all these steps right, your beloved is going to turn to you with love in her eyes and say, "Who are you and what have you done with my a-hole husband?" Acknowledge what an a-hole you’ve been in the past and go back to steps 1-6!

In truth, most women really want love more than money, at least on Valentine’s Day. So, do your best to surprise her with a gift that says how special she is to you (if you can afford it), but remember that your presence and your sacred companionship is the finest delight to be enjoyed on this special day.

Getting started an hour early could be a greater gift than an expensive dinner. Cuddling in bed with champagne and finger foods could be more delightful than sitting silent in a movie. Washing her hair or painting her toenails or cooking her dinner or writing a song for her or painting a picture??? Get creative. Try something you’ve never tried before that includes a personalized element only she would appreciate.

That’s the way to have a 5-star Valentine’s Day that costs much less than you usually spend, and pays off like a charm!

American Express: The Incredible, Disappearing Gift Card.

by Natalie Pace.

Includes a Credit Card Stock Report Card.

Like a lot of busy parents with a picky teen, I relied upon gift cards as a way of presenting just what my kid would love most last Christmas – money! So, I made wrapping my creative expression and hid a few gift cards in wacky boxes – an iTunes gift card in a coffee can, a Starbucks gift card in a giant box the size of a TV and an American Express gift card in a clothing box!

I myself have received various gift cards from iTunes to Victoria Secret and have never run into a problem. It was fun spending the money and easy to carry around the card. I assumed the American Express card would be the best of all possible worlds allowing flexibility to buy anything at all! How wrong I was.

Last week, I was dismayed to learn that the $100 gift card I’d purchased for my son’s Christmas gift didn’t have any money on it. As it turns out, I had purchased three $100 gift cards for some of the independent contractors who provide services for me, and three out of three $100 gift cards also reflected zero balance. Wow! That’s one way to boil water, but my fever was nothing compared to what happened after I actually contacted American Express to get the matter corrected.

The customer service department told me that I’d need to recover all of the original packaging (these were gifts! I had the cards, the card numbers and the receipts, but who keeps the packaging?). If I didn’t have all of the packaging, they couldn’t do anything for me. In addition to that, I would have to fax all of the original receipts, including my driver’s license and I would receive a response from the company 2-3 weeks after they had a chance to review my "claim."

You’re kidding, right? I purchased something and you’re going to turn this into a federal examination and then wait another month before I get what I bought two months ago?

"No ma’am, I’m not kidding," the customer agent said. "That’s our policy."

Hmm. Then I decided to get my money back from the store I’d purchased the cards from, but the store was unable to do that because they’d already sent the money off to American Express.

"Are you kidding?" I asked. "I spend $300 on a product that is worthless and you won’t even refund my money?"

Hmm. "Follow the money to see where the problem really lies," I was thinking. "Big red flag here."

Meanwhile, I must have looked like Charles Manson because something in my demeanor prompted the manager to call his book-keeper up to the front of the store. While we were waiting for her arrival, the manager shared with me that he’d had that problem with the American Express gift cards that he’d purchased at another store in another town about a year ago. He recommended never buying them again and sending cash instead.

"Really," I said, while the wheels in my brain churned ever more feverishly.

Thankfully, the bookkeeper looked at my receipts, listened patiently to my story of gifting a card from Hell to my son for Christmas and then assured me that she would get all three cards "force-activated" as soon as possible. "I can’t tell you how many thousands of dollars I’ve had to do this with," she said.

"Thousands?" I asked. "Over what period of time?"

"Two years," she said.

Wow. In my horrible holiday story, had I actually stumbled upon a real Wall Street nightmare waiting to erupt? I called three different stores in the surrounding area. Three out of three managers verified that they had significant problems with the American Express gift cards and that American Express gave them the royal run-around, instead of quality customer service. This was a problem that was ongoing since they could remember, and American Express didn’t seem to be interested in correcting in.

There are multiple blogs where consumers complain about this problem, and the saddest part of the story is that most people get so fed up with the run-around they get from American Express that they don’t even pursue getting their money back. No one seems to be adding up the amount of money that American Express gets to keep by ripping off the people who are purchasing their gift cards. On ConsumerAffairs.com, Brittney of Carson, CA, reported the same problem with her $100 card having a zero balance. She wrote, "If someone does go through with the class action lawsuit. Sign me up!"

Whether it is poor customer service and colossally inferior product design or outright theft and fraud that consumers – many of them – are experiencing from the American Express gift card, the problem is undoubtedly a sign of deep-rooted red flags in the company. A problem this pervasive for this long doesn’t continue unless the American Express policy is to book the revenue and hold off on delivering the money for as long as possible (and preferably never). A spokesperson in the Public Affairs department at American Express advised me that 1) the problem is rare, 2) when the problem occurs, it is because the checkout clerk hasn’t properly activated the gift card, and 3) these cards are easily stolen, so American Express has to validate the claim before making amends. See the bottom of the article for the complete statement from American Express, along with their recommendations on how to avoid this problem with future American Express gift card purchases.

Carrying revenue was one way that telecommunications companies kept reporting earnings when long distance fell from 25 cents a minute to 4 cents a minute. They took their jolly good time in making the new contracted rate adjustments on the customer’s bill. (I know this firsthand. I worked at a nationwide long distance carrier in 2000 and tried to get the rates adjusted, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, almost daily for months on end.) American Express earnings would be much higher if they are reporting gift card sales, without having to report any expense attached to the issuance of the gift card.

So, I began sniffing around the earnings reports to see if there were any other signs that American Express might be a riskier investment than Wall Street realizes. And indeed there are.

The "revenue" that American Express gets to report from their gift cards is no small number. American Express does not break out its gift card revenue in the quarterly earnings reports, so it’s impossible to know just how much money is derived in this way. However, some data gathering organizations estimate that gift cards in general accounted for 15% or more of the holiday spending in 2009.

Imagine the amount of free money you’d have in your bank account if someone gave you $100 and you gave them nothing in return, except for a headache and a demand for four forms of proof of purchase – one form which is impossible to retrieve – for them to get anything out of you! Times that free $100 by being able to run this game on millions of unsuspecting consumers and you’ve got a lot of dirty money on the books.

As of the October 2008 quarterly earnings report, it appears that no class action lawsuit has been filed in the matter. American Express did report that the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the company policy on merchant surcharging and "anti-steering" practices, but to date, there have been no charges filed against the company in those matters.

What we do know, by checking out the Credit Card Company Stock Report Card, is that American Express is unique among the other credit card companies in terms of the amount of debt that it is carrying. Short-term debt at American Express amounts to $14 billion and long-term debt rings in at $58 billion, according to the 3^rd quarter earnings report, released on October 28, 2008. That means that the debt is almost five times as much as the cash on hand (at $15.5 billion) and over three times the value of the company. (American Express has a stock market value of $19.41 billion.)

The American Express annual report is due at the end of February 2009. The company has already reported that they are looking for $25-$30 billion of term debt to: 1. Refinance old debt 2. Replace maturing short-term debt with long-term debt 3. Fund business growth (in a declining, defaulting market). Additionally, on January 26, 2009, the company reported fourth quarter net income of $172 million, down 79 percent from a year ago. According to American Express’ Chairman and CEO, Kenneth Chenault, "Our fourth quarter results reflect an operating environment that was among the harshest we have seen in decades. Nevertheless, we met our near term goals – staying liquid, staying profitable, and investing selectively to strengthen our competitive position over the longer term."

"On all of those zero balance $100 gift cards," I thought as I read his comments.

The gift card from hell has been burning up consumers all across the nation. And that negative sentiment could spark a hot seat for American Express, at a time when the company needs loyalty and a friendly hand from regulators, from the Feds (and their lending facility) and from their card members.

I added American Express to my Cooling Off list today, anticipating that the share price would be under stress for a reduction in value over the next year. Bear in mind that, as a part of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, American Express could prove to be resilient until or unless there is exceptionally bad news. Don’t short in a short window!

Response from American Express spokesperson in the Public Affairs department:
We are aware that in rare instances consumers attempting to use their gift cards have been told by the merchants that the card was not activated. We’re aware of this issue and take it seriously. In most cases, a Gift Card that is not activated after purchase is the result of honest mistakes by the retail clerk. Gift cards are activated at point-of-sale, often when they are scanned by the bar code reader. However, many different brands of gift cards are sold in stores, and some have different methods for purchase and activation. If the clerk uses the wrong method for checking out an American Express Gift Card, we have no way of knowing that Gift Card was sold. Our records will show it as not activated, like other unsold Gift Cards. We’re working with our retail partners to help them train their clerks on the proper way to check out an American Express Gift Card.

For customers who received a non-activated Gift Card, we will activate the card IF we can validate the authenticity of the claim. That’s the challenge. Gift cards hang on the rack in stores and are easily stolen. A stolen Gift Card would also be not activated, and there have been incidents in which people have called us to try to activate stolen Gift Cards. To avoid this kind of fraud, we validate claims that a Card has been purchased but not activated. Consumers can provide the surest validation by providing a purchase receipt and the original packaging. For these reasons, we recommend that Gift Card purchasers save the receipt and packaging. We realize this is not ideal solution.

There are other ways we can validate a claim, including tracking trends in complaints to determine which stores have a high incidence of non-activated cards. And as we improve our knowledge about this problem, we hope to increase the number of cases in which we can activate a card. We’ve made it a top priority to address these complaints quickly.

Full disclosure: I don’t own any positions in any company mentioned in this article.

Please note: NataliePace.com does not act or operate like a broker. We report on financial news, and are one of the most trusted independently owned and operated financial news corporations in the U.S. This article is intended to educate and inform individual investors, and, thus, to give investors a competitive edge in their personal decision-making. The publicly traded companies mentioned in this article are not intended to be buy or sell recommendations. ALWAYS do your research and consult an experienced, reputable financial professional before buying or selling any security, and consider your long-term goals and strategies.

Investors should NOT be using the Hot News on Cool Stocks list or the Cooling Off list to trade their nest eggs. Your retirement plan should reflect a long, safe strategy, which has been designed with the assistance of a financial professional who is familiar with your goals, risk tolerance, tax needs and more. The "trading" portion of your portfolio should be a very small part of your investment strategy, and the amount of money you invest into individual companies should never be greater than your experience, wisdom, knowledge and patience.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable however NataliePace.com does not warrant its completeness or accuracy. Opinions constitute our judgment as of the date of this publication and are subject to change without notice. This material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument. Securities, financial instruments or strategies mentioned herein may not be suitable for all investors.

Home Prices Freefall to Record Setting Declines.

by Shawn Harris.

Where’s the bottom?  

"I am always a rather large fan of common sense economics, and I believe that when the average person can afford the average home, we are close to the bottom of the market." Shawn Harris

The annual numbers of average home values have come out recently, and it is pretty bad news. Nationwide, the major urban markets are down year on year approximately 20%. The leaders of the pack (Phoenix and Las Vegas) are down over 30% this year.  The question on everyone’s mind is:  Are we done yet?

Home Prices Freefall to Record Setting Declines

Source Standard & Poor’s and Fiserv Data through Nov. 2008

Abstract:
For those of you that don’t like long articles, the answer is yes and no.  We are close to the bottom for the lower end of the market, and the upper end of the market has a ways to go to reach an equilibrium point.  On the low end, the average Joe with the average income can afford the average home.  On the high end, the rich are starting to be affected by the economy and a specific type of loan program may prove to be the "sub-prime" loan for the rich (or pseudo-rich).
 
For more details:
Looking at a pure supply and demand economy, it does appear that home values in the lower end markets will see a stabilizing in values this year.  Local real estate agents are currently very busy selling houses to both first time homebuyers and to investors with cash.  In my market (North County San Diego) offers being submitted, assuming reasonably priced homes, are at full value or slightly over asking price.  For nice houses that are reasonably priced, there are multiple offers and short listing times.

Those houses that have more than superficial problems (1/2 completed construction projects, vandalized properties, condos with low occupancy rates) are proving very difficult to sell, because they are very difficult to finance.  These homes may continue to bring average house values down in the lower end market, even while "nice" homes edge towards stability.
 
I am always a rather large fan of common sense economics, and I believe that when the average person can afford the average home, we are close to the bottom of the market. Markets do have a tendency to over swing and reach past this equilibrium point but it is still a solid indication of the bottom.  Many people point to the perception of a lack of home financing at the lower end of the market as an argument that these homes are still in free-fall, but this is actually a fallacy.  FHA and VA still offer great lending options and in turn offer a high degree of liquidity in the lower end of the market.
 
There is still the recession to deal with, and it is unwise to ignore it.  However, in many and most cases, the average Joe can save money every month by purchasing instead of renting (a 3.5% down payment on a $250,000 house get a payment, taxes & insurance included, of around $1,700) which is a sign that the intelligent home owner may flee from the rental community to the homeowner community, especially with the specter of inflation looming around the corner when the market does start to rebound.
 
Though we are seeing an edging towards stability in the lower end, I do not foresee a rebound in prices.  We are not seeing the market speculators (thank goodness) push into the marketplace to artificially increase prices and lower demand.  Nor do I foresee stability for the upper end of the housing market.  Over the past year and half, we have seen the more expensive homes in any market resist the dramatic decreases in value seen in the lower end homes.  In my local area, Escondido (lower priced) dropped 30% where Encinitas (higher priced) dropped 10%.  However, looking at November’s sales number (anecdotal as it is), the higher end properties have dropped 2% and the lower end has dropped 1% (which is a flip-flop of the annual numbers).  Higher end homes are the next rung in the ladder on our way to the bottom.
 
Typically, the rich were more able to withstand the economic downturn, and there were not the severe foreclosure problems in the upper end homes.  Also, the rich typically did not have to deal with loans resetting due to having gotten into "sub-prime" loans.  Both of these things are changing.
 
The more straightforward of the two reasons for the oncoming drop in higher end housing is the purely economic one.  Though the wealthy are more insulated from a recession, invariably many will in fact lose the ability to make their mortgage payment. Whether they stretched too far on the house payment, they lost a job, had a pay cut, a health issue, divorce, or any of the myriad other common reasons for financial hardship; they could be faced more often than normal with the prospects of losing their homes.  
 
The other reason, which I had been forecasting for a while now, is that we are seeing a specific type of mortgage loan forcing many defaults, similar to the sub-prime fallout in the lower end home sector.  The loan that is causing the havoc is the "option arm", or negative amortized loan.  These are the loans with the 1% teaser rates that keep the payments artificially low.  They were meant to be used as sophisticated financial tools but they actually were used so people playing rich could buy million dollar homes with $400k mortgages.
 
The loans take around 3 – 5 years before they reach a reset point, at which a million dollar mortgage starts at a payment of around $2,600 and jumps to $5,500 per month. The people cannot make the mortgage and as a result, the higher end of home values starts to see steady and serious declines in value.  These were the loan de jour between 2004 and 2006, so we are now feeling the affects of these transactions.
 
These loans resetting are twice as dangerous, because the people in these homes are typically not eligible for any sort of remediation or loan modification programs with the lenders they have borrowed from.  Banks only allow loan modification for people that can actually afford the new payment.  At a low interest rate of 4% a million dollar mortgage is still around $4,200 per month.  Because most of these option arm loans were of the "stated income" type, the borrower cannot re-qualify for the loans at this even discounted rate and banks have no option but to foreclose on the property.
 
Strategies for Investing:
Low cost financing is readily available with 25% down payments.   In my neck of the woods, a $200,000 house will rent for around $1,800 and payments on a $150,000 loan net to around $1,200 (including taxes and insurance).   So, considering the tax advantages of being a homeowner, now could be a great time to switch from renting to owning, while lowering your monthly housing costs in the bargain. In the U.S., the interest on your loan is tax deductible, and, at least in the beginning, most of your loan will be interest (and thus tax deductible).
 
If your investment strategy is purely appreciation based, now is probably not the time to purchase property, low end or otherwise.  We are close to the bottom, but I expect another 5% - 10% drop is plausible.  Obviously, I would hold off on the high end for the average investor.
 
I anticipate a stable interest rate environment (under 6.5% or so) until the market starts to recover.  Once the economy starts to recover all bets are off, as the government will be waging its war against inflation, which creates the potential to see interest rates skyrocket.  
 
Remember, if you can borrow at 5% and expect rates to go to 10%, borrow as much as you can now, especially if you can arrange assumable financing.  The limiting factor is to make sure you can cover the costs of the borrowing in the meanwhile.  

If you have any questions about what I have written, or you think I’m incorrect, please let me know!  I can be emailed at shawn@ctm-financial.com or called at 619-249-9129.

Cordially,

Shawn D Harris
Broker
Mortgage Planning Specialist

I Appreciate Referrals .... If you know someone who needs expert mortgage advice contact me.

Direct: 800.871.7987 x 702

Green: The Secret to Resurrecting Your Nest Egg in 2009.

by Natalie Pace

Date: January 27, 2009

Did you know that clean energy was the top performing industry in 2007, returning almost sixty cents on the dollar for investors? That was almost double the returns of the 2^nd highest performing industry -- oil and gas -- at 32 cents for each dollar invested. And, thanks to President Obama’s American Reinvestment and Recovery Plan, clean energy is poised to be the top performer again in 2009.

In his first White House blog, dated January 24, 2009, President Obama wrote that his Recovery and Reinvestment Plan will "invest in our most important priorities like energy and education." The details of the plan, which President Obama is currently lobbying with Congressional members, is available online at WhiteHouse.gov and include the following target expenditures:

Recovery and Reinvestment Plan of 2009
1. Create or save three to four million jobs over the next two years "in a range of industries from clean energy to health care"

2. Launch a Clean Energy Finance Initiative to leverage $100 billion in private sector clean energy investments over three years

3. Double renewable energy generating capacity over three years

4. Modernize "more than 75% of federal building space, saving taxpayers $2 billion per year in lower federal energy bills"

5. Modernize 10,000 schools

Now, for those who are skeptical of Washington’s ability to get anything done before the next Ice Age, returns on green investing are not just dependent upon the President’s ability to win votes with Congress. There is a worldwide push for clean energy. In fact, Europe, Eastern Europe and China are far more proactive about greening their grid than the U.S.

Germany was one of the first countries to embrace solar energy with its "family program." Solar panels were installed on many homes in that country over the last five years. Germany’s team, Technische Universität Darmstadt, even won the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon competition in 2007! The next Solar Decathlon will be held on the Washington Mall in Washington D.C. October 9 through 18, 2009, where 20 international teams will compete to design and build the most attractive, energy-efficient solar-powered house.

First Place: Technische Universität Darmstadt U.S. DOE Solar Decathlon 2007 photo credit: Kaye Evans-Lutterodt/Solar Decathlon.

Tesla Roadster 100% electric sports car

China launched a new clean energy initiative, "Electric Vehicles for Ten Cities," on January 6, 2009, which will put 1000 electric cars per year for three years in each of ten target cities. (Now if those were Tesla Roadsters, I might just move to one of those cities myself!) On Monday, January 26, 2009, the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced a plan to achieve solar energy as China’s dominant energy source by 2050. Other European and Eastern European countries are modeling Germany’s incentives to jumpstart their own clean energy plan and are committed to powering their grid with renewable energy with large-scale solar harvesting projects.

Europe, Eastern Europe and China are the biggest clean energy customers to date, accounting for the strongest sales growth in any industry on Wall Street over the past three years. Solar giants, like Suntech Power Holdings, MEMC Electronics and LDK Solar are profitable, with a strong backlog of orders and high profit margins, at 12%, 20% and 24% respectively. MEMC Electronics (a silicon manufacturer) sales were $2 billion in 2008, up from $1.5 billion in 2006. Suntech’s 2008 sales were $1.8 billion, compared to $600 million in 2006. LDK Solar’s sales have exploded from $105 million in 2007 to a projected $750 million in 2008.

On January 5, 2009, Xiaofeng Peng, Chairman and CEO of LDK Solar, reported, "Our operations remain at full capacity, with contract backlog remaining strong for 2009." The LDK Solar sales expectations for 2009 are $2.3 to $2.5 billion.

So, while most industries worldwide are contracting, and many, like real estate and banks, are showing catastrophic losses, solar energy is profitable, growing – largely on worldwide government incentives and investment -- and healthy. Electric cars and component industries, like lithium ion battery makers, aren’t profitable yet, but the winds are favorable for growth and government incentives worldwide there as well. Lithium mining companies, like Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (SQM), have strong backlogs, sales and profit margins, with relatively low debt.

There is one trick to investing green, however. As I outline in my new book, Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is, the challenge of investing in an industry that is exploding with potential and new technology innovations, is that when innovation is occurring rapidly, it’s difficult to predict a clear winner because tomorrow’s invention could create a new breakout technology. Additionally, clean energy has been around since the 1970s and some legacy corporations are carrying too much debt to compete with the new stalwarts, many of which are based out of China. For these reasons, a clean energy Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), which owns a basket of clean energy companies, is a better policy for most investors than picking an individual stock.

4 Key Steps to Adding Green to your Healthy Recession-Proofed Nest Egg:
1. Include a Green ETF as one of 10 diversified Exchange Traded Funds in your nest egg.
2. Keep a percent equal to your age, plus 15-20%, SAFE, i.e. not invested in the stock market, since we’re in a recession.
3. The safest place for your money in 2009 is Treasury bills and high rated bonds.
4. Rebalance twice a year to capture gains and buy into underperforming ETFs.

Check out the below pie chart for an example.

Remember to "overweight" 20% safe in 2009, since we’re in a recession, keeping 70% safe if you are 50, and 50% safe if you are 30, etc.

For more nest egg strategies that work in bull and bear markets, buy and read my new book, Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is.

Full Disclosure: I own positions in Suntech and LDK Solar.

About Natalie Pace:
Natalie Pace, is the author of Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is, a featured teacher in the movie, Spiritual Liberation, and CEO of one of the most respected, independently owned financial news corporations in the U.S. She has been ranked as a #1 stock picker from TipsTraders.com and has partnered content with Forbes.com, Sohu.com, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance and more.  She has appeared on Fox News, Good Morning America, CNBC, Time Magazine, More Magazine, USA Today, NPR and national radio shows. For more information please visit, http://www.nataliepace.com/.

Please note: NataliePace.com does not act or operate like a broker. We report on financial news, and are one of the most trusted independently owned and operated financial news corporations in the U.S. This article is intended to educate and inform individual investors, and, thus, to give investors a competitive edge in their personal decision-making. The publicly traded companies mentioned in this article are not intended to be buy or sell recommendations. ALWAYS do your research and consult an experienced, reputable financial professional before buying or selling any security, and consider your long-term goals and strategies.

Investors should NOT be using the Hot News on Cool Stocks list or the Cooling Off list to trade their nest eggs. Your retirement plan should reflect a long, safe strategy, which has been designed with the assistance of a financial professional who is familiar with your goals, risk tolerance, tax needs and more. The "trading" portion of your portfolio should be a very small part of your investment strategy, and the amount of money you invest into individual companies should never be greater than your experience, wisdom, knowledge and patience.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable however NataliePace.com does not warrant its completeness or accuracy. Opinions constitute our judgment as of the date of this publication and are subject to change without notice. This material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument. Securities, financial instruments or strategies mentioned herein may not be suitable for all investors.

Putting Too Much Stock in Your Company—A 401(k) Problem.

FINRA Investor Alert.

Although major Enron and Worldcom trials have long since concluded, stories of employees risking the loss of some or all their retirement income remain in the news. Now is a good time to ask yourself if you hold too much of your retirement nest egg in your employer's stock.

We are issuing this Alert out of a concern that employees who have the opportunity to invest in company stock may be concentrating too much of their retirement savings in a single security. Of particular concern are employees who have all or most of their 401(k) assets in their employer's stock. If the stock takes a beating, so does your retirement savings.

No Restrictions Can Lead to High-Risk Investing
Currently, there are no restrictions on the amount of 401(k) assets that can be held in company stock. While the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), restricts traditional pension plans (also known as defined benefit plans) from investing more than 10% of assets in company stock, there is no similar restriction on 401(k) plans.

Employees can direct a high percentage of their contributions to company stock, even if they are given other investment options. Employer-matched contributions often come in the form of company stock, further concentrating holdings in employer stock.

A study by the Employee Benefits Research Institute and the Investment Company Institute found that almost 54% of employees who have the opportunity to invest in their company's stock do so. Just under 8% have more than 80% of their 401(k) assets invested in their employer's stock. In the case of employees in their sixties, almost 19% hold more than half their 401(k) savings in their company's stock, and almost 11% have more than 90% in their employer's stock. The result: a non-diversified retirement portfolio that hinges to a large extent on the performance of a single stock.

Learning from History?
The fall of Enron Corporation focused attention on the potentially devastating effect of owning too much company stock. 57.73% of employees' 401(k) assets were invested in Enron stock as it fell 98.8% in value during 2001. But employees at many companies still have even larger percentages of their 401(k) assets in company stock than Enron employees did.

What Could Go Wrong If You Concentrate Retirement Savings in Company Stock?
Simply stated, if you put too many eggs in one basket, you can expose yourself to significant risk.

In financial terms, you are under-diversified: you have too much of your holdings tied to a single investment—your company's stock. Investing heavily in company stock may seem like a good thing when your company and its stock are doing well. But many companies experience fluctuations in both operational performance and stock price. Not only do you expose yourself to the risk that the stock market as a whole could flounder, but you take on a lot of company risk, the risk that an individual firm—your company—will falter or fail.

Restrictions Can Limit Liquidity
There's another potential problem with concentrating too much of your savings in company stock. Your company may place restrictions on your ability to buy or sell the stock, or transfer it to another type of investment within your 401(k). This limits the control you have on your finances.

Employer-matched stock, in particular, often comes with restrictions. Some companies require employees to hold the stock until they reach a certain age, or until a specified date. This can spell trouble. If the stock slides, you may be stuck on the sidelines without the ability to sell and limit your losses.

Lockdowns or blackouts can also occur. These are periods in which account activity is frozen, generally to perform administrative tasks. Usually lockdowns are for a short duration (a few days to a few weeks), with employees given advance notice. Nonetheless, it's possible that a lockdown could coincide with a slide in company stock. This happened at Enron, when the stock declined more than 35% during a pre-scheduled two-week blackout.

How Much is Too Much?
The general consensus among financial experts is that an adequately diversified portfolio should have no more than 10 to 20% of total investment assets in company stock. If you concentrate much more than that in company stock, especially in a 401(k) plan where there are trading restrictions, you may expose yourself to more company risk that it is wise to incur. Of course, there is no single formula or percentage that suits all investors, so you should consult a professional about what the right mix of investments is for you.

If you are one of the 9.7 million participants in 401(k) plans that offer company stock and you have more than 20% of your assets in company stock, and this investment also constitutes more than 20% of your overall investment portfolio, you may want to consider re-balancing your investments to increase diversification.

What is Diversification?
Diversification is an investment strategy for spreading your principal among different markets, sectors, industries, and securities. The goal is to protect the value of your overall portfolio in case a single security or market sector takes a serious downturn and drops in price. In short, diversification spreads your risk, while still seeking a strong return on overall investment. FINRA's Smart 401(k) Investing learning center has additional information about diversification and rebalancing your portfolio.

Take Control of Your Financial Future
To achieve appropriate diversification, employees with company stock should consider doing the following:

* Determine your total exposure to company stock. Be sure to include stock options, pension plans, employee-directed stock purchases and company matches in your total. You may have additional exposure to your company's stock through mutual funds in which your company is part of the investment mix. Many investors didn't know how fully exposed they were to technology and Internet stocks until the bubble burst in 2000 and they saw declines not only in their individual stock holdings, but in mutual funds that had investments in these same companies. If your company stock holdings exceed 20% of the value of your total investment portfolio, you may wish to consider redistributing your assets across a broader spectrum of investment.

* Know the restrictions, if any, on buying and selling company stock. The more of your portfolio you have tied up in company stock with restrictions, the more risk you incur.

* Read your company's key SEC filings, including annual reports (10-K), quarterly reports (10-Q) and reports of material events (8-K).

* Use metrics such as beta—a measure of the volatility of a stock relative to an overall market index during a given time period—to evaluate the level of risk your company's stock carries. Employees whose company stock is subject to significant volatility or whose company scores high on other risk measures should be particularly wary of investing too large a percentage of their investments in company stock.

* Read analyst reports and other information from third-party sources to evaluate the short and long-term prospects of your company's stock performance. Don't rely solely on your employer's advice or guidance for why you should invest in company stock.

* Maintain reasonable expectations of the performance of your company's stock. Striking it rich is hard to do, no matter how dominant or successful a company is. All companies, even the most successful, have their ups and downs.

It's Your Retirement
Owning company stock does allow employees to share in the financial success of a company. But it also carries the risk that a company's financial problems will become the employee's financial problems. When it comes to investing for retirement, it's you, not your employer, whose financial security ultimately is at risk from overexposure to company stock.

In determining how much you should invest in company stock remember that your retirement is just that—yours!

Resources
For additional information on saving for retirement, read Smart 401(k) Investing.

To receive the latest Investor Alerts and other important investor information sign up for Investor News.

FINRA is the financial industry regulatory authority. They offer investor education, monitor broker-dealers to promote market integrity and have a Broker-Check resource, where investors can easily check on the background of their financial partner.

Stockerblog.com Exclusive: Interview with Natalie Pace.

– Part 1

Stockerblog.com had the pleasure of recently interviewing Natalie Pace, head of her own financial publishing and media company, and author of the book Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is: Investment Strategies for Lifetime Wealth from a #1 Wall Street Stock Picker.

She has been a repeat guest on Fox News, Forbes on Fox, Good Morning America, CNBC, Time Magazine, USA Today, Kiplinger's Personal Finance, and other financial news media.

Stockerblog.com: What made you decide to get into stock investing, after losing money on real estate? In other words, why not just put your money in the bank?

Pace: I didn't lose money on real estate, I was underwater and when I did sell my real estate, I sold for a profit. And in the mean time, I was able to live there and not pay rent and got the tax benefits, but it was underwater. I'm glad you asked the question because that's an important message for people today, to realize about their real estate. If they're in trouble and they can find a way to modify their loan and stick it out, their investments return over time, but in the mean time, especially if it is your home, chances are you have a tax benefit staying there, and you get to live in it. Sometimes there are other win-wins out of an investment rather than just the ROI.

Stockerblog.com: What made you get into stock investing, in other words why did you really look into how to invest in stocks, choosing stocks, that type of thing.

Pace: Well actually I always thought that you should make money while you sleep. So I had been invested in stocks ever since I began my first real job, when I started making money. But what got me into it even more seriously, which was kind of funny, was when I did make money on that real estate that I sold, I had a chunk of money sitting in a certificate of deposit at 4%.

I wanted it to earn a little more so in August of 2000, I went to a broker that had been referred by my bank and he recommended that I diversify all of my money, every cent plus an additional $500 per month, into four mutual funds, and I can tell you that one was a telecommunications fund anchored by Global Crossing, another was an energy fund anchored by Enron, third was an internet fund anchored by AOL, and the fourth was an international fund anchored by Japan. I looked at him and I said the telecommunications companies are cooking the books, you can't have 25 cents a minute long distance drop to 4 cents a minute and have profits.

Then there was Enron, and I lived in California when Enron was gouging our energy rates to the point that people were dying; there were old people and poor people during our heat wave that were not able to afford their air conditioning, so I refused to invest in Enron, just on principal.

I had told all my friends that at a 1999 Christmas party, and I lived in Santa Monica so a lot of my friends were very wealthy and very powerful, and they thought I was crazy, and told me that I didn't understand the new economy. I told them that I understand the old economy and if you make 9,000% gains on AOL, you should take your profits, because it cannot last until they start earning money. At any rate, I told everybody to sell and diversity in Christmas of 1999. In 2000 I just said 'No' to mutual fund investments, and in 2001 when stocks that I did like had lost 90% of their value and were trading for a song, I went in and tripled my money in less than four months, another year that people lost a lot of money. So at that point, all the girlfriends who had been listening to me in 1999 started coming back to me and have me teach them what I know.

Stockerblog.com: Did you ever think that you would become a stock picker, columnist, and head of your own financial web site?

Pace: Never in my wildest dreams, but it was totally meant to be. I was just a single mom trying to make my own ends meet, and when my girlfriends came to me, it was hilarious, because they said "Will you teach us what you know?" and I said "OK as a philanthropic thing I will teach you as a test group", and within a year, I had submitted a business plan. Then out of the blue, the daughter of the president of Oracle walked in to my life, so I gave him the business plan, and he said "I think you're a genius," and I said "Would you put that in writing?" He said, "Yes" and from there, within a year I was on Forbes.com, interviewing Steve Forbes. They were very supportive, and it just kept growing that fast.

Stockerblog.com: Can you tell me what your biggest investment success was, and why it was so successful?

Pace: I am a Forbes, not a Schwab, so my strategies are to provide the news and information for investors – my subscribers -- to make a lot of money. I can tell you the biggest successes they've had and it's been unbelievable. I have companies of the year and then I have company features of the month. My company of the year in 2003 was Taser International (TASR) and from the time I listed it to its peak, it earned 9,000% gains. So anyone who had invested $12,000 when I first listed it in January of 2003 would have become a millionaire. We took it off the list at a 5,000% gain.

Other big winners I had, I actually picked Google (GOOG) on the IPO and that was on Fox News, and I have to tell you, I was the Lone Ranger on that one. Everybody did not like Google. At that point they thought it was going to be over-valued, over rated, they didn’t like the way they were conducting their auction for the IPO and letting just anybody invest in it. There have been many, many more.

One other thing that I think is really important for people to know, in 2007, clean energy was the top performer. It earned 60 cents on the dollar and over half of the companies I was featuring each month were green and in that clean energy space. People made a lot of money. Suntech (STP) more than doubled that year, and we did tell people to take their profits early. MEMC Electronic (WFR) tripled that year, and anybody, even if they just had a clean ETF, and were rebalancing once a year, they probably would still be up this year, instead of down.

End of Part 1 of the Interview – Stay tuned for future segments of the interview over the next couple weeks, where Pace discusses her thoughts on her holistic view of investing and new bits of advice since the book was written.

Her latest book, Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is: Investment Strategies for Lifetime Wealth from a #1 Wall Street Stock Picker is available at Amazon.com and wherever books are sold. You can also check out Stockerblog's January 19, 2009 review of the book.

Interviewer does not own any of the above-mentioned stocks.

Interview by Fred Fuld at http://Stockerblog.com. Fred Fuld was in the financial services industry for over twenty years, working as a stockbroker, investment advisor, and market maker on the options floor of the Pacific Stock Exchange. He has been interviewed on CNBC, Fox Business Network, and Globo TV, and has written numerous articles for thestreet.com, the Bond and Share Society Journal, Friends of Financial History Magazine, and various other publications. He was the creator of Celebrity Stock Indexes, and is author of the book, Investing in Brazil Stocks: Get Rich from the South American Giant.

Shielding Fools from Folly.

by Paul Woods, President, CEO and CIO, Odyssey Advisors.

Paul Woods, President & CEO, Odyssey Advisors LLC.

"The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools." I can’t help wondering what an English philosopher (Herbert Spencer) was referring to when this quote was made 150 years ago, but he could just as easily have been referring to the bailout mania going on today. This has morphed our economy into the worst of all possible variations of capitalism and socialism. We’ve socialized risk and privatized return. For taxpayers, now it’s heads they win, tails you lose.

When politicians on both sides of the aisle had to choose between protecting taxpayers or saving companies that were large contributors, it took about a nanosecond for them to decide to stick it to taxpayers. While survival of the fittest seems to work very well for nature, insuring the survival of the dumbest appears to be the path chosen for the U.S. economy.

Rewarding these companies for destroying an unprecedented amount of wealth effectively marks the end of American style capitalism. The consequences of allowing companies run by fools to stay in business are likely to be a less dynamic economy, lower economic growth and higher unemployment as resources that could have helped to stimulate economic activity were poured down a rat hole instead. It gets even better as political hacks that have little or no experience with real jobs may now become involved in running banks, insurance, and auto companies.

Also noteworthy during the quarter was a Ponzi scheme that unraveled and made $50 billion disappear. It was disguised as a hedge fund run by the former chairman of Nasdaq. For those wondering how to prevent this from happing to them, there are two simple rules. First, avoid hedge funds. They remain unregulated, mostly because of generous contributions to the right people. An audit by the SEC would have found this scam in a heartbeat, but oversight is the last thing hedge fund managers want. Second, keep a firewall between your money and your investment manager. A separate custodian will insure that money doesn’t transfer without your approval.

In the fourth quarter of 2008, there was no place to hide in the stock market. If you owned any type of equities, you got hammered. Value and growth were pounded equally, but large and small companies were generally less bad than midcap and microcap companies. For reference, here’s the stock market segment scorecard for the fourth quarter of 2008:

Source: Telmet Orion

Within these market segments, the industries likely to be the least impacted by a recession had smaller declines while financials and clean energy companies were mostly taken out and shot. For reference, here’s the stock market index and industry group scorecard for the fourth quarter of 2008:

Source: Telmet Orion

In the bond market, there was a lemming-like flight to Treasuries during the quarter while other bonds were thrown overboard. As a result, spreads on Agency, Municipal, and Corporate bonds rose to levels not seen for decades. It’s hard to believe that a market this lousy can produce a bubble in anything, but that appears to be what’s happening in Treasury Bonds. Between the recession that will take a huge toll on tax revenues, up to $700 billion in bailouts, and a likely stimulus package with an even bigger price tag in 2009, the deficit is going to skyrocket and the Treasury is going to be issuing a LOT of debt. The laws of supply and demand will make it very difficult for Treasury yields to remain this low for long.

Source: Bloomberg LP

Even though current yields on Treasury bonds are absurdly low, very high yield spreads make it easier to find attractive bonds outside the Treasury sector. Many Agency bonds have become direct obligations of the U.S. Treasury, and offer yields more than 1% higher. Municipal bonds are going to become increasingly valuable once higher taxes redistribute more income to Obama’s constituents, and these currently offer yields up to 1.5% more than Treasuries. For the venturesome who don’t mind lousy liquidity, corporate bond yields are 2.5%-6.5% higher than Treasuries. For anything that isn’t a Treasury Bond, we currently find the highest spreads in 4-7 year maturities and that remains our focus for new money in the bond market.

It’s easy to see a recession that’s likely to get worse before it gets better and conclude the sidelines are the place to be. However, this looks like the wrong time to be out of the stock market completely. Keep in mind there’s a mountain of cash in Treasury bonds and money market funds. Low yields will be tolerated when stocks are going south, but all this cash can easily touch off a buying panic when stock prices start to go the other way. The stock market usually experiences a sharp rally when the economy looks the worst, and missing the first few days of it can dramatically reduce an investor’s overall return. Earnings estimates for 2009 were finally reduced by more than 30% in December. While this makes the stock market look more expensive, earnings expectations may finally be low enough to break the long string of negative quarterly surprises and give investors some encouragement in 2009.

Best regards,
Paul A. Woods, President & CEO

Paul is the President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Investment Officer of Odyssey Advisors. He has over 35 years of experience in the investment management and research analysis of common stocks. He manages the Odyssey Clean Energy Portfolio. Paul has done a great deal of independent research on clean energy and has written multiple articles on various segments of this industry. He can be contacted at pwoods@odysseyadvisors.com.

Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable however Odyssey Advisors LLC does not warrant its completeness or accuracy. Opinions constitute our judgment as of the date of this material and are subject to change without notice. This material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument. Securities, financial instruments or strategies mentioned herein may not be suitable for all investors.

The Cure for the Financial Crisis: Avoid the Bailout Index.

by Natalie Pace, author of Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is and featured teacher in the new movie, Spiritual Liberation.

Learn how a Wall Street Outsider Beat the Street from 2000 to 2009 and how you can, too. Includes 8 Easy Tips to Recession-Proofing and Resurrecting Your Portfolio.

People often ask me why putting your money where your heart is has any merit at all. "I don’t even know where my heart is!" one man joked to me.

This simple strategy has been the key to my success for one fundamental reason. When you invest in the things you actually want to own, you are investing in the future. When you invest blindly, you are invested in dying industries. Your 401(k) money gets sold off to the highest bidder, even if that company is poorly run, drowning in debt and losses and can’t sell a car if the city of Detroit depended upon it.

The 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index are supposed to be "thirty leading blue-chip U.S. companies." However, with Citigroup, General Motors and Bank of America included in the DJIA (as of today), and Google, eBay and Apple excluded, the Bailout Index seems a better name.

You can make a choice to avoid the Bail-out Index and invest more wisely. Believe it or not, it’s not more time or money. All it takes is a few clicks on the computer to discover what you really own and then checking off on a few different boxes in your 401(k).

I avoided the DOT COM bust because I didn’t want to own companies that were losing money for five years. Certificates of Deposit, my investment of choice, was the top-performing asset in 2000, earning only 4% interest.

I refused to invest in Enron because they were overcharging for energy in California and, as a result, there were people actually dying during the heat wave who couldn’t afford air conditioning. I almost tripled my money in Opsware in 2001 because I believed in a little company that could prevent worms and viruses from taking down computers in major corporations and in U.S. government agencies.

Of course, add up all of those great investing calls up, and you have a lot of friends begging me to "teach them what I know," which lead to my creation of my new book, Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is and my role in the new film, Spiritual Liberation, as a featured teacher.

I’m not telling you this to blast my own horn. I’m more like the child who screamed that the Emperor Has No Clothes. I found that common sense wisdom was being undervalued on Main Street, and that applying it could launch me to the top of Wall Street. The strategies are as easy as pie – a pie chart that is!

In 2004, when I would speak at conferences, I would ask one simple question. "How many of you would rather own a Hummer over a Prius?" At the time, gas was over $3.00/gallon in California, so there was a sea of hands for the Prius, and maybe one or two rebellious hands for the Hummer. At that exact moment, if you had invested in Toyota and trimmed General Motors out of your mutual funds, you would be a far richer person today – and the world would be moving more quickly toward fuel-efficient cars.

Toyota Motors has enjoyed a lot of gains over the past five years, more than doubling in share price, to a high of $137.15 on February 12, 2007, from its $68/share price range in January of 2004. Today, the share price is still in the same range it was five years ago, while General Motors has been declining more and more each year, and has lost more than 90% of its value. Currently, General Motors is worth less than $2 billion on Wall Street, , while Toyota Motor Company still has a value of $103 billion.

Curing Wall Street’s ills is not a matter of investing in individual companies or daytrading. It’s switching to Exchange Traded Funds that offer companies you’d prefer owning, employing the pie chart (which helps you to diversify and keep an appropriate percentage safe) and rebalancing your nest egg just two times a year. Using that plan, you, too, will begin Putting Your Money Where Your Heart Is and enjoying far greater returns as a result. If you match your shopping list with your investments, you will prosper. And the world benefits because you are supporting the best products and services with your consumer dollars AND your investment dollars!

Some of the top mutual fund holdings in the United States in 2007 included some of the worst run companies -- General Motors, AIG, Fannie Mae and Phillip Morris Tobacco Company (Altria is its name on Wall Street). Most of these companies were included in the Bailout Index. So, people who work hard to outlaw smoking in public places actually owned and manufactured cigarettes – without knowing it.

The sad truth is that if you do not take the time to know what you own and invest in what you love, you are your own worst enemy! And, if you thought that you didn’t have the time to fix it in the past, certainly today, you are aware that there must be a better way. And there is.

8 Easy Tips to Get Rich (and Enrich the World)

1. Know what you own. You can see the top holdings of your mutual funds by entering the 5-letter symbol in the Research Now box on the home page at NataliePace.com. Once you get to the mutual fund stock page, simply select Top 25 Holdings to view what you own.
   
   
2. Own ETFs. Exchange Traded Funds allow you to easily diversify by size, style and industry, whereas most mutual funds are too big to be truly diversified. Click on the Top 25 Holdings to be sure that you are picking ETFs with the companies you wish to support with your investment dollars. Check out PowerShares.com, iShares.com, AMEX.com and your favorite financial website for ETFs.
   
   
3. Use a pie chart. Personalize and diversify your investments into a simple formula based upon your age and ten ETFs. See below for a sample pie chart.
   
   
4. Keep a percent equal to your age safe. The safest investments today are Treasury bills and highly rated bonds. Money markets and Certificates of Deposit were safe (before banks and brokerages began failing) in the past and will be again in the future – once the current crisis is behind us.
   
   
5. Rebalance. Add 15-20% safe during a recession. Weight back into normal stock exposure when the recovery begins. Always have diversification, asset allocation (the pie chart) and rebalancing as your plan!
   
   
6. Once or twice a year meetings. Clean energy was the top performer in 2007, earning almost sixty cents on the dollar. ($10,000 becomes $16,000). Real estate stocks soared in 2005. NASDAQ stocks were all the rage in 1999. When you see a slice of the pie explode in your portfolio, gobble up those gains! Re-diversify according to your pie chart plan and your nest egg will be fattening up on a regular basis. If you did this only twice a year, you’d be far richer today than you were in 1998. If you didn’t rebalance, odds are that you have lost money in the stock market over the last decade.
   
   
7. Invest in emerging industries. Clean energy is a major mandate of the Obama Administration. Obama has proposed to create five million new jobs by investing $150 billion over the next 10 years in private clean energy business. There are more than a few clean energy ETFs to choose from. Solar is more profitable than wind, currently. You can listen to more comments from me on the sector by watching my appearance on CNBC’s Power Lunch from January 30, 2009.
   
   
8. Great news. Don’t read the headlines daily. That will only upset and confuse you. Too much information is not a good thing, and a lot of the talking heads are clueless. Try FINRA.org, Dr. Gary Becker’s blog, Freakonomics blog, NataliePace.com and Schwab’s Market Insight for highly regarded financial news that is smart, on the money and easy to understand.

Living the rich life begins with something as easy as matching up your shopping list with your investment list. You have more wisdom as a consumer than is found in all of the doomsday headlines and fancy financial software. That is how a Wall Street outsider beat the street for the past decade, starting with the 2000 recession, and it is one way that you can begin living the life of your dreams as well.

About Natalie Pace:
Natalie Pace, is the author of Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is, a featured teacher in the movie, Spiritual Liberation, and CEO of one of the most respected, independently owned financial news corporations in the U.S.. She has been ranked as a #1 stock picker from TipsTraders.com and has partnered content with Forbes.com, Sohu.com, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance and more. She has repeat guest appearances on Fox News, Good Morning America, Time Magazine, More Magazine, USA Today, NPR and Kiplinger's Personal Finance. For more information please visit, http://www.nataliepace.com/.

 

2009: The Harshest Winter of the New Millennium.

Op-Ed by Natalie Pace, author of Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is and featured teacher in Spiritual Liberation, the movie.

Stacie Isabella Turk, Ribbonhead.com ©2008. Stylist: Arlene Hylton-Campbell, 818-710-0079.

The headlines are grim. Lay-offs. Parents sacrificing their own family. Ponzi schemes. Charities losing their funding. Future generations will look back on this year much as we look back on 1929.

But there are major, fundamental differences between our current recession and the Depression. We have enough housing. We have enough food. This is a restructuring of who owns what and what that ownership is worth, not starvation and the Dust Bowl. The challenge to Americans is to pull together, work together, problem solve together, invent together, innovate together, educate together, play together and refuse to be taken out at the knees with the daily headlines of doomsday reports (and/or the daily calls and mailings of debt collectors).

Yes, the questions of who owns what, who owes what to whom, who gets to keep ownership of this or that and what that is worth must be sorted out and yes, while you are getting those letters or phone calls from credit agencies, it sucks. Yes, our lives will be harsher, perhaps uglier (at least on paper) in 2009 than they were in 2005 or 2000. Our cushions, nest eggs and luxuries are all trimmed back – some drastically. Some people will lose their dream home, but they don’t have to lose their dreams!

2009 is the harshest winter of the new millennium. But it is a season. And this too shall pass. The length of the storm is more in our hands than most people realize. It is not the government’s problem or the company’s problem. We, as a collection of individuals, make up our country. We, as a collection of workers, make the products and services of our company. We determine whether we’ll become productive and profitable, or allow ourselves to be "laid off" and miserable.

I spoke with an investment analyst who had recently been laid off. She was going to volunteer her time instead of sitting at home waiting for a job offer that is unlikely to come soon. I suggested that she use this as an opportunity to stretch her skill set, to reach up to the next job title that she wants to embrace, so that when she does return to work, it can be with a raise and promotion. Volunteer to chair a special project that utilizes her current skill set, but requires a little more than that. She could use her rolodex and brainpower to benefit one of the charities that are struggling under reduced funding this year.

What if we all did that? What if instead of asking what your company can do for you, you asked what you could do for your company? For your customer?

It’s a simple fact that healthy companies and countries have productive citizens. When everyone is concerned only with their own needs and forget about the needs of the company to earn a profit and make great products or the needs of a nation to lead the world in innovation and advanced education, then the in-fighting causes suffering, while another company and country steps up to take the lead.

Kay Koplovitz, the founder of USA Networks, recently told me about a city back East where the staff members have mutually agreed to take a forced day off once every other week, in order to prevent layoffs. Imagine the competitive advantage that company or government agency would have if those same cooperative people agreed to come into work on that day off – even half a day -- and volunteer to make their organization more profitable, more healthy, more efficient and to better serve their customers. Imagine how much faster that city’s wounds would heal under the care of cooperative, productive hands.

What can I do to save a job? What can I do to help my company become profitable? What can I do to brighten my neighborhood, my child’s school? What can I do to make sure that no child in my city is hungry or out in the cold tonight?

Our basic needs have not changed. While the economic meltdown continues to burn through our lives and our assets and even our homes, immobilizing some with fear, we still have need to email. To power the grid with renewable energy sources. To prevent a car accident by having good roadways and functioning traffic lights. To help a child receive a good education and a teen get into college. To free ourselves from fossil fuel consumption. There is greater need now more than ever for Americans to outperform our legacy as the imaginative, problem-solving, can-do nation. We fought for freedom. We marched to end discrimination. And we are now called upon to work harder than ever to bring about the products, goods and services of a cleaner, greener, more equitable world. We are called upon to be productive past the age of 65. But 60 is the new 40! We are healthier and more vibrant today than people were fifty years ago, when "retirement" was invented.

If you ask yourself, "What can I do for my customer? What can I do for my company?" the answer might be different than what you want to hear, and here is where courage is required. If you rode the Pony Express to deliver mail, there would come a time when you have to put the horse in the stable and learn to engineer a train or pilot a plane. Is it time to invest in continued education? A new skill? A new job?

If you are working for a search engine that delivers ten results for Google’s tens of millions, you have a lot of work ahead of you to catch up. Should you train harder and innovate faster and recruit the top minds from the top universities? Should you quit and join a winning team? Evaluate. Make a choice. Commit. Work hard. Produce. Spring will yield the fruit of this winter’s labor.

We will all make sacrifices in 2009. We will all need to give more to our neighbors and friends and family to ensure that they are healthy, clothed, fed and have a roof over their head. Vanity charities may need to lock arms with others to reduce overhead and continue providing the family room at the Children’s Hospital or the local homeless shelter. You may have to move back in with your parents, or your parents may need to move in with you. But there is enough to eat. There is enough housing.

Our family, friends, and even our nation need us more than ever. It is our collective, productive, optimistic, determined, innovative free spirit that sets Americans apart from the rest of the world.

This is the winter of the new millennium. Time to shed the leaves of dying businesses. Time to plant the seeds of an emerging world. Time to break bread with family and count the blessings by the warm fire, while the storm rages outside the window.

Time to shine. "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that." Idleness cannot drive out poverty. Only productivity can do that. Doomsday headlines cannot drive out disaster. Only smart solutions can do that.

So shine in this winter of our country, so that our spring will indeed yield fruit. And future generations will look back at 2009 as the year that Americans pioneered across the prairie of economic disaster and created a cleaner, greener world.

Natalie Pace, is the author of Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is, a featured teacher in the movie, Spiritual Liberation, and CEO of one of the most respected, independently owned financial news corporations in the U.S.. She has been ranked as a #1 stock picker from TipsTraders.com and has partnered content with Forbes.com, Sohu.com, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance and more. She has repeat guest appearances on Fox News, Good Morning America, Time Magazine, More Magazine, USA Today, NPR and Kiplinger's Personal Finance. For more information please visit http://www.nataliepace.com/.

New Administration, New Approach?

by Liz Ann Sonders and David Kastner Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.

Market Update: Stocks, Bonds and Hot Sectors

January 23, 2009

* A new approach? Banks are seeing renewed pressure because of additional massive losses. The traditional monetary policy spigot is wide open, with interest rates at historic lows. And the Federal Reserve has resorted to some unconventional means to get credit flowing again, with only tentative signs of success. President Obama's administration is taking a new approach to tackle the heart of the problem: rising rates of home foreclosures.

* Consumers become frugal, stifle economic growth. Consumers are pulling back sharply after being beaten down by falling home prices, the big drop in stocks and rising unemployment. To make matters worse, corporations are responding with more cuts to jobs and spending as profits plunge. We think that successful implementation of massive fiscal spending is needed to short-circuit the negative feedback loop in the U.S. economy.

* Housing has yet to find a bottom, but affordability is improving. While builders have significantly slowed the pace of new home starts, hope for a near-term bottom in home prices is being stifled by still-high inventories of new and existing homes, tight lending standards and dour consumer sentiment. Fortunately, these issues are on the new administration's radar: Is help on the way?

* International landslide. A torrential downpour of negative economic data around the globe has put investors on their heels once again. We think that successfully coordinated implementation of massive stimulus is needed to halt the slide. The currency market may be the mechanism that forces governments to act. Watch the U.S. dollar and commodities for indications that investors are warming to international stocks once again.

* Schwab Sector Views. We are moving slightly toward a more cyclical stance on the markets, raising our rating on the materials sector to market perform while keeping our outperform view on technology. In the near term, we think consumer staples will likely underperform. To maintain a defensive tilt, we are keeping an outperform view on the health care sector.

* Schwab Bond Sector Views. With Treasury yields so low, we see better value in municipals and investment-grade corporate bonds. In the short term, inflation risk is not a major concern. In the longer term, inflation-protected securities appear to be fairly valued and can offer some hedge against inflation.

Get more details on each of this bullet points in Schwab’s Market Insight webpage at Schwab.com.

Overview
After a respectable rally at the turn of the new year, stocks have headed south again amid a barrage of terrible economic data and more hefty charge-offs by banks around the globe. Consumers appear to be in full retrenchment mode, and corporations are reacting by deepening their spending cuts and laying off more employees.

CEO sentiment has plunged to a record low as earnings outside of the embattled financial sector get hit by the tight credit conditions and a sharp slowdown in consumer spending. With about 20% of the S&P 500® companies reporting their fourth-quarter-2008 results, sales are off 10.74% from the fourth quarter of 2007. And with trade stalling around the world, global economic data is no better.

We wouldn't be surprised if the market retested the November 2008 lows. In fact, we would have been more surprised by such a short bottoming process (if that is what we're indeed experiencing now) had the year-end rally continued without a pullback. It appeared to us that too many on Wall Street were expecting the rally to continue, which usually leads to a short-term pullback, if not more.

Now, we remain watchful for signs that the existing and pending stimulus measures will improve sentiment and renew risk-taking, which could bring cash from the sidelines.

We believe that the odds are higher for a deep and extended recession (versus a depression), and stocks appear to have already priced in much of the damage. Although economic data will likely remain grim in the near term, and we can't rule out further weakness in stocks, we think the markets and economy will likely stabilize.

For tactical investing ideas, we're slightly more cyclically positive in our stock sector views. If you're an investor who is willing to take on more risk in your fixed-income allocations, we suggest that you look to corporates and muni bonds. Get more ideas from our bond views in the complete article, located at Schwab.com.

Liz Ann Sonders is the Senior Vice President, Chief Investment Strategist at Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. David Kastner is a CFA and the Director, Market Analysis Group at Schwab Center for Financial Research. Read more of Schwab’s market updates and analysis at Schwab.com.

Lessons from Madoff.

by Natalie Pace, author of Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is.

Includes my Hot News on Cool Stocks List.

February 1, 2009

General Stock Market Performance

Same old story. Same red flags as Enron. New Poster Child for Greed.
How everyday investors can avoid shysters and scam artists.
Like Kenneth Lay before him, Bernard Madoff was a well-off, connected, married family man, who claimed to have better returns than everyone on Wall Street. And, like Kenneth Lay before him, if you looked beyond the flash of the words and dress and scrutinized their actions, you, too, could have smelled something fishy in Denmark. Executives and money managers are all salesmen – cheerleaders who are trying to win your investment dollars. Many investors place far too much blind faith in the CEO and/or Madoff, CFP and/or analyst because they don’t know the right questions to ask!

Madoff’s hedge fund, like Enron before him, was one of the most highly respected companies in America prior to its demise. Madoff was on the board of NASDAQ. Enron won Fortune magazine’s Most Innovative Company award six years in a row and consistently topped analysts’ recommendation lists.

Investors can swoon over a company’s grand achievements, invest manically in what they think is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and end up bitter and broke from the whole sordid affair. This isn’t just a trap for the uber-wealthy.

Everyday folk have plenty of stories of how they invested with this or that Certified Financial Planner (who was probably a rodeo rider or actor a few months back), who came recommended from a trustworthy friend, who ended up losing a lot of their money. (These shysters give the great, hard-working CFPs a bad name, just like Madoff, Lay and Skilling give visionary, ethical CEOs a bad rap.)

The warning signs are the same for both traps – the trap of a major Wall Street player or just your local broker/salesperson – and are detailed extensively in the following chapters of my new book, Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is: "Brokers are Salespersons, Not Surgeons," "Lessons from Enron," and "Top 11 Investing Mistakes."

So, how could you have sniffed out Madoff and how can you make sure that you are protected against shysters like him in the future? Below are a few very important tips to help you attract quality, experienced financial partners who keep abreast of the latest innovations, and avoid the salespersons who are really only interested in how they can line their wallets with your dough.

Red Flag #1: A company executive or money manager asks for blind faith.
When you think about it, not even church leaders ask you to go strictly on blind faith. When asked for evidence of a God, they can respond, "Angelina Jolie." When asked for evidence of earnings, Jeffrey Skilling called the inquisitive analyst "an a**hole" and later said, "It’s difficult to show how money goes in and out of Enron—particularly in wholesale." If a company can’t explain something as fundamental as earnings in language you can understand, be suspicious.

Madoff, like many hedge fund managers, closely guard their investments and their strategies and when they do provide reports, the reports may be quickly outdated because the nature of a hedge fund is "active management," meaning that the manager is paid to get in and out of deals to maximize Return On Investment.

This is why some of the most respected economists in the world recommend that people steer clear of hedge funds altogether and instead take a long term strategy that protects their assets, while also providing upside potential. Dr. Gary Becker, Nobel Prize winning economist and professor at the Chicago Business School, writes: "I recommend buying a diversified portfolio of stocks and other assets that controls risk while providing decent returns. Some money managers may be able to beat that in the long run, but it is extremely difficult to discover who they are."

Red Flag #2: The company makes unreasonable growth claims.
Enron claimed to go from $40 billion in revenue in 1999 to $100 billion the following year. Madoff claimed to have 12% returns while being the largest hedge fund on Wall Street, during a decade that saw less than zero returns in the general marketplace. One of Madoff’s managed funds, Fairfield, claimed to have only one slightly down month every couple of years. As a Madoff whistle-blower (who prefers to remain anonymous for health reasons) wrote in a document to the SEC dated November 7, 2005, "No Major League baseball hitter bats .960, no NFL team has ever gone 96 wins and only 4 losses on a 100 game span. Nobody on Earth is that good of a money manager unless they’re front-running."

By the time a company is fat enough to attract $40 billion in revenue (Enron) or $50 billion in assets under management (Madoff), the market is well established, competitors have found a way to yank some of the customers to their corner, and the staff of inexperienced newbies has grown substantially.

Madoff’s massive trading was a "market mover." His firm’s trading would have dramatically affected the price of the stocks he purchased and sold, making it even more difficult to achieve above average returns. The average returns on Wall Street for the last ten years have been less than zero, -0.6% according to Hulbert’s Financial Digest, while Madoff claimed to achieve returns above 12% with almost no losses. That was unlikely enough to compel a securities executive to alert the Securities and Exchange Commission as early as May of 1999 and to continue to hound them until the Madoff scheme was announced, almost a decade later, in 2008.

In an anonymous document to the SEC, dated November 7, 2005, the complainant writes: "The key to a successful Ponzi Scheme is to promise lucrative returns but to do so in an unregulated area of the capital markets. Hedge funds are not due to fall under the SEC’s umbrella until February 2006." The document has 18 pages of argument, including returns of the funds, to support the complaint against Madoff Securities. After a decade of duping, it finally caught the Feds attention enough to pursue and press charges.

Red Flag #3: ACT NOW (in secret)
In addition to his private clients, Bernard Madoff had a lot of funds that were giving him the money to manage, without the clients ever being alerted to that fact. Some of the world’s largest banks, insurance companies and most prestigious private equity funds gave money to Madoff to manage, without their clients ever knowing.

It is not just hedge funds that wear a cloak of secrecy. A lot of annuities operate in the same manner – promising a guaranteed rate of return while keeping the investments and fund managers a secret from the investor.

Secrecy is the hallmark of all kinds of scams, not just the largest Ponzi scheme uncovered to date – Bernard Madoff. Basically, if you have to write a check before you can "receive" your lottery winnings or get help with your foreclosures or those millions that need to be gotten out of Nigeria or Iraq, you’re likely looking at a fraud. If you are expected to hand your money over without properly evaluating what you’re investing in, you’re more vulnerable than you realize. Even if the person/company promises outstanding returns, legitimate looking documents and a guaranteed return. One of the most common scams in 2009 is the person who claims to be able to save your home from foreclosure. (If you need help, go to HopeNow.com, a government sponsored homeowner help agency.)

This is the year that insurance companies, century-old brokerage houses and banks are failing. You’ve got to be VERY aware of where your money is and what it is being invested in. (The Dow Jones Industrial Average Blue Chip Index has become the Bailout Index, with some of the most unhealthy companies in the nation listed there, including Citigroup, Bank of America, General Motors and more.) Never ACT NOW before fully examining the pros and cons with your family and trusted advisors.

The Bottom Line:
Power. It’s intoxicating. Now you know three red flags of a scam and might avoid getting drunk.

Three Takeaway Tips
1. The CEO is the soul of the company. Kenneth Lay and Bernard Madoff both relied upon power, prestige and a wedding ring to "showcase" their credibility. Instead, look at their actions and their work to see the "soul" of their integrity.

2. Secrecy is the hallmark of foul play.

3. The products and services of the corporation tell you a lot more about how well the company is doing than the awards that the company might be receiving or the Index it might be included in. If you don’t know what products and services your company is engaged in, then let Takeaway Tip #2 be your talisman and refuse to become involved until you get the information you require to make a reasonable, informed decision.

Go to the NataliePace.com home page for a link to buy Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is on Amazon.com.

While you are there, click on the Get Rich and Enrich Retreat banner ad to register for my next retreat in Santa Monica, CA. There were 100 degrees of difference between the weather in Santa Monica (at 80) and Chicago (below 30) in January! Vacation and Nest Egg Resurrection in Sunny, Beautiful Beach Town = VERY HAPPY PERSON now and going forward! Only TWO seats remain, and the last three retreats have sold out, so be sure to call and email now to register. We’ll even throw in a Premium Subscription with every retreat signup. With a value of $2000, that means you’ve gotten a return on your retreat investment instantly!

Track Record of our Reporting
While the markets have fallen in 2008, the Hot News and Cooling Off lists below have a winning track record – in bear and bull market years. 41 positions listed below – 68% -- have delivered impressive gains this year, even while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down -36% over the past year! Only nineteen of our listings went in the opposite direction of the reporting, which is quite impressive given the horrible market drop of this fall. Additionally, in 2008, nineteen out of 27 companies that were featured in our monthly articles and stock report cards posted strong gains. That is a 70% winning track record! See the article, "New Year. New You. New Nest Egg," in vol. 6, issue 1, for the chart and more details.

Yes, the majority, but not all, of our top performers were shorts, which is why we added options training to the retreat. Remember that the trading portfolio should be a small portion of your nest egg, equal to your experience, and should not be part of your nest egg. (The nest egg is money you earn while you sleep, not while you day-trade.) If you’re new, you should be using education or fun money, not your nest egg, to learn on. Take your profits early and often in this volatile, down-trending year.

3 out of 6 Company of the Year selections more than doubled.  My 2003, 2004 and 2007 Companies of the Year have posted up to 9000% gains (Taser), up to 690% gains (Opsware) and up to 215% gains (Suntech Power Holdings), respectively.  MySpace, my 2006 Company of the Year, was a large part of News Corp’s success with shareholders that year.   OSI Pharmaceuticals, my 2005 Company of the Year is back on track for gains and we still believe that Suntech Power Holdings, which is the market leader in solar panels and our 2008 Company of the Year (for the 2^nd year in a row), will be a big winner going forward! (Sometimes it takes a few months for the news to get out to the rest of the world.)  So three out of six are superperformers, one performed well above the market and two are down (in a recession). Meanwhile the general stock marketplace over that same period has lost money! That’s the kind of record that puts you on top on Wall Street.  (I launched my first publication on 11.15.02, and featured the first Company of the Year on 1.1.03.)

TipsTraders.com continues to list me as a Highly Recommended Stock Picker, with their independent ranking system, where I’ve repeatedly occupied the #1 position. Some of our best picks include: Bioteq Environmental (BQE) +144%, Blockbuster Video (BBI) +82.5%, Genentech (DNA) +415%, Google (GOOG) +545%, Las Vegas Sands (LVS) +139%, LifeCell (LIFC) +180%, Macerich (MAC) +150%, Opsware (OPSW) +690%, Rio Tinto (RTP) +145%, Sohu (SOHU) +150%, Suntech Power Holdings (STP) +107%, Taser (TASR) up to 9000% gains and World Water & Solar (WWAT) +181%. (Some of the best picks in 2008 were put options – on the Cooling Off list. Look there for details on the incredible gains options investors enjoyed on Wells Fargo, Fortress Investment Group, Sears Holding, Fannie Mae, Toll Brothers, KB Home, Novastar Financial and more there.)

Market Movers:
The Federal Open Market Committee and Monetary Policy
The Fed funds rate continues to be "0 to ¼ percent." In the 1.28.09 press release, the Federal Reserve Board further elaborated on the reasoning behind the rock bottom rates, writing: "Industrial production, housing starts, and employment have continued to decline steeply, as consumers and businesses have cut back spending. Furthermore, global demand appears to be slowing significantly. The Committee anticipates that a gradual recovery in economic activity will begin later this year, but the downside risks to that outlook are significant."

The next meeting takes place on March 17, 2009.

Advance GDP growth rates for 4Q 2008
were released on January 30, 2009 at 8:30 a.m. ET.  The BEA statistics were negative, at -3.8%.

Preliminary GDP growth estimates for 4Q 2008 will be released on February 28, 2009 at 8:30 a.m. ET. For more BEA release dates, go to the BEA.gov website and be sure to visit the NataliePace.com calendar section often.

EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITES AND INFORMATION:
1. FOMC Information: Interested in reading the press release of the January 27-28, 2009 FOMC meeting for yourself? You can. The official Federal Reserve document is available online. Click on FOMC, or go to FederalReserve.gov to read!

The tentative FOMC meeting schedule for the 2009 calendar is: March 17, 2009 (Tuesday), April 28-29, 2009 (Tuesday-Wednesday), June 23-24, 2009 (Tuesday-Wednesday), August 11, 2009 (Tuesday), September 22, 2009 (Tuesday), November 3-4, 2009 (Tuesday-Wednesday), December 15, 2009 (Tuesday).

2. Calendar Section: Conferences, Online Chats and more: Check out the Calendar section of NataliePace.com regularly. There are many wonderful opportunities to chat one-on-one with millionaire money managers, life coaches, economists, respected money gurus, real estate veterans and CEOs! Be sure to check out the dates of the mid-month Hot News on Cool Stocks Update and the publication date of our next ezine. Get more information on how to best use our articles in the FAQs article, located under the Investor Edu link on the home page of NataliePace.com.

Don’t miss the Premium and Book Buyers’ teleconference with Natalie Pace on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 5:00 p.m. PT (8:00 p.m. ET). Get call-in instructions on the Sharing Wisdom bulletin board after February 6, 2009.

3. Survey Results: Each month we have three new surveys so that we can stay in touch with your needs and desires. What do you really want for Valentine’s Day this year (women only)? Which was your favorite film and your favorite supporting actress in 2008? Cast your vote there!

4. Euro interest rates: ECB rates are at 2.00% (main refinancing), 3.00% (marginal lending) and 1.00% (deposit facility). The next meeting and interest rate announcement is scheduled for February 5, 2009 at 2:30 p.m. CET.

Hot Stocks List
Investors who "never pay retail," note that the BOLD highlighted stocks are trading at their 52-week lows or near the price featured in NataliePace.com’s article. This may be a good buying opportunity. (If the stocks are not highlighted, then in our estimation, this is not a good time to buy. Reasons are explained in the news commentary.) The companies that are listed below which are not highlighted may not be in a good buying range, but they appear to be poised to continue performing well (if you have already purchased them). There are never any guarantees in life, and all stocks are risk-based investments. Consult your certified financial planner before making any changes to your investment strategy. And remember that these "Stocks on Steroids" are not intended to be part of your nest egg strategy at all – not even for "pros." If you’ve never traded individual stocks before, this is your "fun" or "education" money. You should not stake your future on anything that you don’t have mastery over.

Hot News List (highlighted).  Be sure that you are buying low.
Altair Nanotechnology (ALTI)
EBay (EBAY)
HOKU (HOKU)
LDK Solar
PowerShares Wilderhill Clean Energy Portfolio (PBW)
Satcon (SATC)
Suntech Power Holdings (STP)
Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL)

DELETIONS (Take your profits early and often):
American Superconductor (AMSC). 50% gains between 12.1 and 1.14.09!
Sociedad Quimica de Minera (SQM) profits of 20% on 1.14.09.
Suntech Power Holdings. 69% profits between 12.1.08 and 1.15.09. Take them!
World Water and Solar.

HOT NEWS on COOL STOCKS LIST

Recently Deleted/2008 Companies featured:
Echelon +20%, GE, +13% and +18%, Google, +15% and +31%, Johnson & Johnson +10%, LDK Solar +18%, Microsoft +12%, Satcon +13%, Suntech +35%, Trina Solar +22%, World Water & Solar +22%. Genentech (8.1.08) +40%. Altair (deleted on 8.7.08) posted gains of +3% and +57%. Zoltek (deleted on 8.18.08) lost 30% before being removed. LDK Solar was deleted on 9.2.08 with 46% and 29% profits. U.S. Gold profit taking on 11.6.08 amounted to 72% gains. Conergy gains of 51% were taken on 11.7.08. American Superconductor posted 50% gains between 12.1 and 1.14.09. MEMC Electronics (WFR) had 21% gains between 12.1 and 12.15.08. STP had gains of 69% between 12.1.08 and 1.2.09. SQM profits 20% on 1.14.09. WWAT was deleted on 2.1.09 with -62% losses.

Recently Deleted from the Hot News list:
Short term gains on Suntech (1.2.09) and SQM (1.14.09).
World Water & Solar (now known as Entech Solar) on 2.1.09

Stocks to Watch
Some of these are great companies that we’re thinking of adding to the Hot List and some are stinkers we’re thinking of adding to the Cooling Off List.  Read carefully to identify which is which!  

Note that right now most of our favorite companies are on the Watch List, anticipating continued weakening of the stock market, and share prices.

Recent Additions:
Wells Fargo (1.01.09)

Recent Deletions:
TJ Max (TJX) 1.2.09

Cooling Off Stocks List (may be Poised for a Decline in Share Price).
Note: The companies listed in bold have recently been added to this cooling off list and/or may be currently poised for a decline in value. Investors who have them in their portfolio should read the recent news and consider whether it is time to sell and take profits, dump losses, short the position and/or simply weather the storms, while keeping the company in their long-term portfolio. At any rate, always consult your certified financial partner before making adjustments to your portfolio. (Again, note that the stocks on this chart are expected to go DOWN in price.)

Highlighted Companies (Cooling Off List):
American Express (AXP)

Recently Deleted in 2008:
Fannie Mae was deleted on 2.11.08 after losing -50% and -56% of its share price value, and then again on 7.1.08, after losing another -40%. (Both puts more than doubled.) Novastar Financial (NFI) was deleted on 6.2.08 with -95% share price implosion. Sears Holding Corp. was deleted on 7.1.08 with 64% gains on the put option. Wells Fargo was deleted on 7.1.08 with 83% gains on the put. Apple was deleted on 8.1.08 with 35% gains on the put. The Google put, deleted on 8.1.08, was another great performer, with over 50% gains. First Solar had gains of over 32-34%. Mentor was deleted on 9.30.08 with 75% gains on the put option (-17% on the share price); Medicis was deleted with gains of over 37% on the share price (down direction). Boston Properties, Las Vegas Sands and Macerich were deleted on 10.9.08 with gains of 16-30%, 66% and 28-42% respectively. Wells Fargo was deleted on 11.6.08 with 35-50% gains on the put and again on 12.1.08 for 50-70% gains.

Please note: NataliePace.com does not act or operate like a broker. We report on financial news, and are one of the most trusted independently owned and operated financial news corporations in the U.S. This article is intended to educate and inform individual investors, and, thus, to give investors a competitive edge in their personal decision-making. The publicly traded companies mentioned in this article are not intended to be buy or sell recommendations. ALWAYS do your research and consult an experienced, reputable financial professional before buying or selling any security, and consider your long-term goals and strategies.

Investors should NOT be using the Hot News on Cool Stocks list or the Cooling Off list to trade their nest eggs. Your retirement plan should reflect a long, safe strategy, which has been designed with the assistance of a financial professional who is familiar with your goals, risk tolerance, tax needs and more. The "trading" portion of your portfolio should be a very small part of your investment strategy, and the amount of money you invest into individual companies should never be greater than your experience, wisdom, knowledge and patience.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable however NataliePace.com does not warrant its completeness or accuracy. Opinions constitute our judgment as of the date of this publication and are subject to change without notice. This material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument. Securities, financial instruments or strategies mentioned herein may not be suitable for all investors.

NataliePace.com Calendar.

Join Natalie Pace on Feb. 10-12, to Recession-Proof and Resurrect Your Portfolio (and stay for a Valentine’s Day love celebration in one of the sexiest cities in the world for low prices that haven’t been seen in years!)

Imagine how much fun Valentine’s Day could be if you weren’t fighting about money. How do you fix that when you’ve tried therapy, hot showers, cold showers and even pillow fights? You fix the source of the money ills first, and then you have your Valentine’s Day, which is why I scheduled the February Get Rich and Enrich Retreat for February 10-12 (just two days before the lover’s celebration). Fix your budget. Recession-proof and resurrect your nest egg. All while enjoying the beautiful, sunny beach town of Santa Monica, California in a board room setting (with just a dozen people) taught hands-on by one of the most respected financial pundits in the U.S. -- Natalie Pace. And then stay for two days of love and relationship celebration in one of the most vibrant cities in the world. We saved two seats for one very special couple, so call 866.476.7442 NOW to reserve your spot.

Nancy and Dave celebrated their 30-year anniversary with us. Nancy lost 30 pounds and is now working on the jobs of her dreams. Randall and his wife joined us in November 2008. "I have made enough money my first week to pay for my trip, Thanks!" Randall.

See below for just a few of the amazing educational and networking opportunities that world-class organizations are offering for you. To access links to the event website and registration, go to the Calendar section at NataliePace.com.

Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is by Natalie Pace
Natalie Pace's first book is available now! Be the first to own it! This book is the cure for the financial crisis, and is one that everyone with a 401 (k) should own. The strategies work in bull and bear markets. Learn how to resurrect and protect your nest egg in a system that is as easy as pie – a pie chart, that is! Bill and Nilo Bolden saved their nest egg. Mia Hewett is earning over 50% gains in this tough market, using the strategies. Other readers report making more than enough money to cover the cost (less than $17 on Amazon) within a week of reading it!

Get Rich and EnRich Retreat in the sunny beach town of Santa Monica, California
Tuesday, February 10-12, 2009
3-day Get Rich and Enrich Retreat with Natalie Pace. If you lost more than 20%, your nest egg was cracked to begin with! Resurrect Your Portfolio, while keeping it recession-proofed. Learn how to get the Bailout Index out of your 401 (k). Learn easy strategies for employing ETFs, Modern Portfolio Theory and rebalancing twice a year to capture your gains and keep your nest egg growing. After attending the retreat, Nancy lost 30 pounds and is working on the jobs of her dreams. Brianna took control of her chaotic investments and founded her own investment club. Glennda has a renewed love of investing and will probably become the best Certified Financial Planner on the planet!

Only two seats remain. Subscribers receive 25% off and a FREE 12-month premium subscription valued at over $2000. CALL 866.476.7442 or email Heather@NataliePace.com NOW to set up your Buy My Own Island Plan for life!

World Premier of The Compass movie, Anaheim, CA
Sunday, February 8th, 2009
5:00PM through 9:30PM PT
From where you are to where you want to be - a full-length documentary about finding your direction in life, discovering your true purpose, and living it.

Book Buyers and Premiums Subscribers Teleconference with Natalie
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
5:00PM through 6:00PM PT
Wonder how to resurrect your portfolio? Want to hear details about how 70% of my monthly stock picks were winners in 2008? Subscribers who have purchased a book qualify for this special teleconference. Premium subscribers are always welcome to call into my teleconferences! Go to the calendar section and click on the link for call-in information, which is available after February 6, 2009.

LA OPERA: Das Rheingold by Richard Wagner
Saturday, February 21st, 2009
7:30PM through 10:00PM PT
Gods, goddesses, giants, and dwarves struggle to be lords of the ring, but as Wagner's mammoth music drama unfolds, the ring's curse unleashes its vengeance. A vivid musical experience never to be forgotten.

The Academy Awards!
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009
5:00PM through 9:00PM ET
Watch the stars, the glamour, the triumphs and the amazing feats of film and writing of 2008. Who is your favorite supporting actress? Which is your favorite movie? Vote in our surveys!

Natalie Pace on Radio with Judy Rosley
Wednesday, March 11th, 2009
3:00PM through 4:00PM ET
Listen live on http://www.berkshireradio.org. The show is "Healer's Connect," on WBCR out of Massachusetts.

Ocean of Gratitude Cruise, Costa Rica +
Saturday, March 14-21, 2009
Michael Bernard Beckwith and Rickie Byars Beckwith will lead you in inspiring music, meditation and spiritual mastery of your life, including yoga, swimming, amazing countries and more.

Natalie Pace at Agape Seminar, LA, CA
Saturday, March 21st, 2009
10:00AM through 1:00PM PT
Natalie Pace will lead this special seminar, which is hosted by Agape. How would you live if you had all the money in the world? Live that life now with nest egg resurrection strategies that really work and information on green investments for those of you who wish to Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is and earn great gains in the bargain. Go to the calendar section for a link to register.

LA Opera: Die Walkure by Richard Wagner
Saturday, April 4th, 2009
6:30PM through 11:00PM PT
"You really must beg, borrow, steal, or preferably buy a ticket to see Plácido Domingo as Siegmund," according to The London Times. His compelling love story between the doomed hero and his soul mate features some of Wagner's most memorable music.

L.A. Opera: The Birds by Walter Braunfels
Saturday, April 11th, 2009
7:30PM through 11:00PM PT
Walter Braunfels freely adapted the ancient Greek comic-dramatist Aristophanes’ play The Birds to compose what he described as an "airy play of imagination...everything here is a game, a metaphor." Soprano Désirée Rancatore, makes her Company debut.

The Milken Global Conference, Beverly Hills
April 27-29, 2009
This 3-day conference brings together some of the most extraordinary people in the world – business executives, institutional investors, asset managers, government leaders, academics and Nobel laureates. Network, share & learn.

Revelation 2009, Atlanta, GA
Thursday, May 28-30, 2009
Agape's Annual Revelation Conference 2009 is hosted by Michael Bernard Beckwith, founder of Agape International Spiritual Center, and Dr. Rickie Byars Beckwith, the artistic director of the Agape International Choir. Be inspired. Supercharge your spiritual path.

If You Lost More than 20%, Your Nest Egg Was Cracked to Begin With. Resurrect Your Portfolio (and Recession-Proof it against further market losses) with Natalie Pace (Natalie Pace is a #1 stock picker and the only stock market pundit whose book is enthusiastically recommended by a Nobel Laureate economist) for three full days of hands-on training This is the chance of a lifetime – to learn directly from Natalie: • Always keep a percent equal to your age SAFE (plus 10-20% in recessions) • Invest in emerging products, energy and technology, not dying industries • Invest in wisdom, not the old way of doing things (that just lost you half of your nest egg) • Diversify and rebalance with a Buy My Own Island Blueprint that is appropriate to your age (instead of blind faith, buy and hold and whatever my broker says) • Know what you own (instead of holding a big basket of everything, including companies you despise) Google, Myspace, Sohu, Suntech, Taser International, Rio Tinto, Opsware, Goldcorp and more: Natalie found them first before they went on to earn gains between 100% and up to 9000% in the case of Taser International. Natalie also warned to get Fannie Mae out of your mutual fund holdings in 2003, to get GM out in 2004, that housing was a house of cards poised to collapse in 2005 (when insiders at KB Home and Toll Brothers were cashing in hundreds of millions of dollars of their own stock) and to avoid Lehman Brothers in her stock report of June 2006. (Bear Stearns was so bad, it didn’t even make the grade to be included on the stock report card.) You’ll spend three days with Natalie Pace, author of Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is, respected journalist, and CEO. Natalie hosted her own series on the Forbes.com Video Network, has published articles with Forbes.com, Sohu.com (China’s "Yahoo"), Kiplinger’s and more, and is a repeat guest on national television shows, including: Forbes on Fox, Your World with Neil Cavuto, Cavuto on Business, Good Morning America, Time magazine, More magazine, USA Today, NPR, Kiplinger’s Forbes.com, Sohu.com and more. She’s been adding a splash of green to Wall Street and transforming lives on Main Street since 2002. Transform yourself… CONFERENCE REGISTRATION INFORMATION Retreat includes: • FREE upgrade to a premium subscription (value: $2000). Receive ONGOING SUPPORT all year as you step into the wisdom and knowledge that you’ll learn at the retreat. • FREE 21-day coaching call series (value $595). Wake up every morning with a positive prosperity message from Natalie Pace, intended to retrain your brain into wealth consciousness. Retreat Value (including premium subscription upgrade and coaching calls): $11,595 *Cost: $2,300 per person *Couples’ Cost: $3,500 per couple Contact Nancy@NataliePace.com for group discounts. The Ambrose Hotel, 1255 20th Street Santa Monica, CA 90404 310.315.1555 - Tel 310.315.1556 - Fax 877.AMBROSE - Toll Free info@ambrosehotel.com Register Now! And add Heather@NataliePace.com and info@NataliePace.com to your email list so that you receive our updates in a timely manner. Testimonials I learned how to balance my portfolio so that it is actually pretty much bullet-proof regardless how much of a meltdown the economy is in. No, this is not about putting your money in a bunch of mutual funds. "Modern Portfolio Theory" is a very clever and practical way to arrange your portfolio so that your account will grow while other people are losing their shirts. Best of all, you only need to look at your portfolio twice a year. I also learned a quick and painless way to pick stocks and options that I have never seen taught before. I just wish I knew this when I was trading stocks in the late 90's. This information is for traders/investors of all experience levels. I was not asked to buy one thing during the entire 3 days. How refreshing! - Experienced Options Trader I first saw the flyer for Natalie's workshop last March. I was interested, but I still trusted my financial advisor at that time and the weekend workshop seemed expensive....Oooh, nothing in my life, including buying a house in Venice, has ever been as expensive as trusting that advisor! - Eva Natalie Wynne Pace is the Rosetta Stone which translates, even transcends, the gibberish white noise of today's investment media into actionable financial articles for her readers. Her writing betrays the pheromones of sassy street-smart intuition; her stock features are insightful, even inspired; and her mission to the individual investor, desperately needed. - Executive Managing Director and Investment Banker (anonymous) of a very well-known, publicly traded bank "Natalie’s brilliance rocks! Allow her financial wisdom to permeate and give you your freedom." - Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series "My husband and I spent our 30th anniversary at Natalie's Living the Rich Life Retreat, and it was the turning point in our lives. I've since lost 30 pounds and am now well paid for doing work I love with incredible people, and my husband has become way more successful with his investing." - Nancy "Natalie helped to reawaken my passions and dreams after the drab year I had following my accident. My goals are once again in sight." - Erik "Natalie takes the mystery and confusion out of personal finance and liberates you from the myth that Wall Street smarts are the monopoly of professional brokers. Whether your current financial means are modest or substantial, her time-tested, hands-on, interactive and intuitive methods of successful investing will assist you in dissolving your money obstacles." - Michael Bernard Beckwith, founder of Agape International Spiritual Center "Natalie’s excellent advice about how to allocate one’s monthly budget with what she calls a "Buy My Own Island Plan" is an important component of achieving economic security and wealth at older ages." - Dr. Gary S. Becker, winner of the 1992 Nobel prize in economics "There’s no reason why people can’t be generous, compassionate, loving and really, really rich. That’s Natalie Pace. She skyrocketed from poverty to America’s #1 stock picker. Now this gifted teacher is sharing her techniques so you can skyrocket, too!" - T. Harv Eker, author of the New York Times #1 bestseller, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind .

NOTICE: NataliePace.com is NOT a stock brokerage service, and does not operate or act as one.