Why do people blow off appointments? In our offline business we literally waste hours every week preparing for appointments that never show. The percentage of appointments that do show is high, but there is still a significant amount of appointments that never show.

I realize unexpected things come up in life. Hey, we’ve all had to reschedule an appointment but when does your life become so important that you can’t even call for a scheduled appointment and say you won’t make it? Emergencies are acceptable reasons not to call. There are times when calling for a scheduled appointment is either difficult or impossible, I’m not really talking about these blown off appointments.

My work day started a little after 1am yesterday and I agreed to stay late in the office after normal closing time for a potential new customer. This put my work day at an abnormally long 17 hours yesterday. Not looking for or expecting somebody to cry for my long day, but I’m still annoyed today that this prospective customer never showed and never called. You think I’ll stay late for this same prospective customer again? Unless the excuse for why the appointment was a no show is really good, probably not.

We could have spent that wasted time on somebody else. Existing or possibly new customers who do care about our time as much as we care about theirs.

I’d like to think most readers of this blog are conscientious people so this paragraph probably doesn’t apply to you. The next appointment you might ever think of blowing off, here’s a tip: call and let them know. Almost everybody has cell phones or VoIP these days. Just call your appointment and say: I can’t make it. Don’t even have to explain why. This frees the people on the other side of the appointment to use their time in other ways and for other people. It’s the right thing to do.

The world would be a better place if more people thought how their decisions impacted others.

Last night we signed up (again) for the unlimited Hollywood Video DVD rental plan 3 DVDs out at a time which runs $19.99 for the first 30 days and $29.99/mo. thereafter, but I’m feeling buyer’s remorse after reading Netflix has expanded their streaming option.

With Monday’s change, virtually all Netflix subscribers will be able to stream as many movies and TV shows as they want from a library containing more than 6,000 titles. There will be no additional charge for the unlimited access.

So essentially we paid $3 more + gas and travel time to/from to be able to cycle through the Hollywood Video inventory of movies we haven’t seen. I’m certain the quality of the DVD streaming will be less than watching DVDs, but will it be worth the extra $$? We’ll be canceling at the end of the month and going back to Netflix to try the streaming option.

Netflix move looks intended as a spoiler to Apple’s expected announcement that they will be offering movie rentals for $3.99 a movie at their annual MacWorld event which kicks off today. This pricing is similar to the Xbox Live movie service which our family has enjoyed, renting over a dozen movies. Good quality and convenient. Getting in the car to go back and forth to the video store might be exercise of sorts, but it gets old. That’s why we only do the unlimited Hollywood Video in one month surges once a year or so.

Another downside of Netflix deal is selection. 6,000 titles available for streaming versus 90,000 DVDs. On Xbox Live the selection of movies is even smaller. No idea yet how many movies will be available from Apple. Selection and video streaming quality will ultimately decide how long we stay subscribed to Netflix.

From the photo at the top of this movie you can see our first three movie picks at Hollywood: Epic Movie, Ball’s Fury and Hot Rod. Epic Movie was one of the stupidest movies I’ve ever seen. Ball’s Fury was medicore, but had some funny parts. Will be watching Hot Rod later today but it won’t be difficult to be better than the other two.

I captured some HD video of our sons completing the hardest and longest set of songs on Rock Band for the Xbox 360 on the expert difficulty setting.

The Endless Setlist which contains 58 songs took them 3+ hours to complete and out of a possible 290 stars (5 stars possible on each song) they had 275. A few songs they achieved gold star status on. Our youngest teen played bass and our middle teen played guitar.

Click To Play

Hmmcast #180 downloads
Windows .wmv (1480×1080 HD) PSP .mp4 (480×272) iPod .mp4 (640×480)

The Zecco UI and account screens continue to be unclear. I didn’t see anywhere in the trade section where these $4.50 trade commissions are being applied which prompted this post. In the account activity area it shows “principal amount” and then the “net amount” shows $4.50 less, so this must be where we are supposed to see the commission fees reflected (?). If you know of a better place to track the commissions than this, please reply in the comments.

How to locate the commission fees in Zecco
STEP 1. inside the Trading area choose “Account Records” along the left column.
STEP 2. choose “all activity” beneath the section.
STEP 3. select the “From Date” and “To Date” and click on “go” button in the account table cell.
STEP 4. you should see something like the snipped screenshot pictured above.

Why not just have a commission column that shows the amount charged for each buy/sell? Maybe Zecco will add that going forward. That would make more sense.

Recognizing a stock loss
As you can also see above, I just took my first stock loss trade at Zecco by selling Zarlink (ZL) which I bought 60 shares back on July 20 at $1.69 and sold today at a dismal $0.64/share. To add insult to injury, I paid my first $4.50 commission for the trade bringing the grand total of the loss to $66.90. Like buying a video game that is played once and shelved. Like filling up somebody else’s tank of gas.

I lost money.

Why did I take this loss instead of waiting for it (hopefully) to bounce back? I’d waited nearly six months already for ZL to do something besides go down and there is a looming threat of them being delisted. I’d rather suck up the loss and move onto something else. I turned right around and bought 6 shares of Shortel (SHOR) paying a second Zecco $4.50 commission. I already own SHOR shares through Sharebuilder (and paid $15.95 commission there, ouch!), so this adds to my holdings, only at a different online broker.

The impact of commissions in 2008 versus 2007
We’ve known the Zecco free ride on trades for those with balances under $2,500 was going to end in 2008 so this doesn’t come as a surprise.

I added a “fees” section to our stock competition Google Finance shared spreadsheet to reflect these $4.50 commissions per trade throughout the year. Even with the ZL loss and $9 in commissions, overall my stock competition portfolio is still +2.96%. I sold seven stocks in 2007 at a profit (GMO, BQI, ATAR, RSTO, MCZ, SIRI and SAPE) and 0 stocks at a loss, but I could (and time will tell if I should) have taken the ZL loss in 2007.

Of those stocks sold, 2 of 7 are currently showing higher than the amount sold: GMO which is at $11.50 and was sold at $8.05 and BQI which is at $4.19 and was sold at $3.67. On a percentage basis (5 of 7 = 71.4%), I’m happy to have sold when I did. This is a real world example of the uncertainty in the market that everybody is trying to time; buy low, sell high.

The last six months on the market have been rocky, so I’m not disappointed with the performance. If $4.50 commissions would have to have been paid on all of the 2007 trades, I’d be looking at an overall portfolio loss, so this will continue adding an additional wrinkle in 2008.

I covered some of this in my 2007 stock competition recap post, but at the time hadn’t done the following:

1. paid any commissions to Zecco
2. taken any losses on trades

Now I can clear both those off the table. Let’s hope #2 doesn’t happen very often in 2008. As I’m about to publish this, SHOR has lost 27 cents from what I paid for it already (dropping from $6.17 to $5.90). Argh, isn’t the stock market fun?

One of my favorite Sega Saturn games was NiGHTS. It came with a special controller with a tiny joystick that you used to make some circles with a flying character. As far as 3D games go, it was also one of the first 3D games that I really got into. There was a short-lived Christmas version of NiGHTS that I never played.

NiGHTS is a game I’ve been hoping Sega would update for some time for the Xbox 360 or PS3 who both have solid analog sticks which could control the game. But instead Sega chose to make ‘Nights Journey of Dreams’ exclusively (?) for the Wii and something where you have to make the movements with motion controls or use the separate nunchuck with Wiimote.

When I saw the game on the shelves I was curious how well the Wii controls would work out?

Motion controls aren’t responsive. Actions as simple as a loop require you to slowly move the Wii remote in a circle, which isn’t helpful when battling against a clock. You can add the nunchuk to control NiGHTS with a joystick, but it only helps slightly. I had to resort to using Wii’s Classic Controller to make the experience more palatable.

If you don’t want to read just one review and base your game buying decision (me neither), check out Joystiq’s NiGHTS roundup. The best score? 80 out of 100 by Games Radar. More complaints about controls in the Joystiq comment section as well as non-controls complaints about the game.

Despite the negative reviews, I’ll probably still pick this title up for the Wii — likely when it reaches bargain bin pricing — because I’m so fond of the original title and some (very few though) games that are broadly panned, I still enjoy. Not sure the latter will be the case here though. If it blows, oh well, won’t be the first or last game I buy that disappoints.

Wii Motion controlitis
This raises an excellent point about the Wii: motion control is great for physical exercise but doesn’t apply well to all types of games and holding two different controllers, the Wiimote in one hand and the nunchuck in the other is awkward for some games. I’d rather have both my hands focusing on a single controller. You?

I appreciate that Nintendo is trying to do something creative with the Wii controls but their revolutionary controller setup is not right for every game and could ruin some otherwise good programmed games. Why Sega didn’t figure this out in the game testing phase and offer NiGHTS for the Xbox 360 or PS3 is puzzling.

Actually, it’s not, Sega’s NiGHTS producer, Takashi Iizuka responded in a CBS News interview with the following:

Initially, when I thought about the game concept of “NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams,” I really didn’t consider what platform I wanted the game to run on. It wasn’t until I started the actual game design that I discovered that the Wii was the most appropriate platform because it had the right features to fit the game I was designing.

Maybe Takashi is right and the reviewers are wrong?

Since I haven’t actually played the game yet, the controls might not be as bad as reviewers are saying. If anybody reading has played NiGHTS Journey of Dreams on the Wii or has a comment on other games that you feel have been ruined by the Wii control scheme, let’s discuss in the comments section.

I like the Wii controls for games like Wii Sports bowling, tennis, boxing and golf. They work pretty good for Zelda Twilight Princess too and other some other titles. I didn’t care as much for the controller setup for Brunswick Bowling on the Wii. I wonder if the Gamecube controller would work for NiGHTS Journey? The Gamecube controller can be used to play Gamecube games on the Wii. Anybody reading try this with NiGHTS Journey?

For the better part of 21 years I’ve been in either ownership or management. Something big I’ve learned along the way s when you have a problem or issue, it’s better to address the issue by asking questions versus making statements.

For example, let’s say you have a problem with dishes being broken on an evening shift and you’ve narrowed the list of possibilities down to one or two people that always work the evening shift in the dishroom.

Fear one on one
You could call the employees in the office one at a time and rant about how you don’t want any more dishes broken and how most of them are happening on their shift. For a first meeting on the subject this is ill-advised and seldom works. As the boss you become the bad guy and on the outside chance you are fingering the wrong person, you could demotivate a good worker.

Group shame
Holding a dishwasher meeting and telling every dishwasher that there are too many dishes being broken on the evening shift won’t matter to employees who work in the morning or afternoon. This strategy is too random. You’re hoping that the person(s) breaking too many dishes will hear the message, while being negative to the rest of the group. Don’t do this.

Group participation
If you hold a general meeting and want to bring up the subject of broken dishes then show the dishwashers numbers. Here is how many dishes we bought last quarter in the business, any guesses how much this cost? Then offer a prize of some sort for the answer closest. Make this is a regular theme at these meetings so that the dishwashers begin to understand the cost of each dish. I’ve had some success gluing each dish to a board in the dishroom above where the dishes come out and writing in green marker the cost of each dish.

Follow the leader
In every group of employees I’ve ever managed there is at least one leader, even if not designated with an official title. And sometimes the leader with the title isn’t the real leader. You could approach the leader of the evening dish crew and ask for their help: “we are noticing an increase in the amount of dishes being broken and would like your help in finding ways we can reduce the number of dishes broken. We’d like to pass along some of this savings to you. Would you be interested in this arrangement?”

What if the leader is the one breaking the dishes? S/he will be less likely to want to break into their bonus and the dish breakage in the evening will be less likely to happen. If the amount of dishes broken increases, you can return to the leader and have a different conversation that focuses on how the employee thinks the dish breakage should impact the dishroom: “since getting your help in this issue, even more dishes appear to be broken, what do you recommend we do to put this back on a positive track?”

The rat out
The situation you want to work toward is having the employees, peers, managing each other. When a dish breaks, you want the other dishwashers to put pressure on their co-workers, not you. But what if the leader(s) come back to you and finger specific dishwashers which are breaking dishes? Time to have a meeting with the leader and the employee and encourage the leader to ask questions. Let’s say the employee’s name is John: “Hi John, thanks for meeting with us. We’re having a problem with an unusual amount of dishes being broken in the dishroom. Do you have any ideas how we could improve the situation?”

As the manager, you’re there for support of the dishroom leader, encouraging, mentoring for how to deal positively with the problem. I’ve seen this situation turn negative where the leader fingers the one breaking the dishes and that allows you as the manager to step in and correct the leader, that it’s better to ask questions instead of use accusing statements (periods). It’s important that in advance you talk to the leader privately that you want the issue to be brought up using questions and not statements so if you do have to jump in, the leader isn’t demoralized.

Sometimes the person responsible will admit to you that they have some sort of problem breaking dishes. That’s when you’ve struck gold and can begin to work with them on improving the situation. You want the employee to admit they’ve made a mistake and seek guidance for how they can fix the problem. You can’t mold stone, but can work with putty.

Varying management styles based on individuals
Some employees won’t like or respond to the question approach. They’d rather have you call them into the office and lay the facts on the line. You can still do this in a way that asks questions: “You appear to be one of the people breaking more dishes than others, can you shed any light on how we can either change this perception or reality?”

People are different and to manage everybody with one style is flawed. Some people you can’t raise your voice at ever, other people won’t think you’re serious unless you raise your voice. One rule of thumb in effective management that doesn’t change is we all appreciate questions more than statements. So the next time you have to work through a problem with one or more employees remember to try and frame the initial process as a series of questions rather than statements.

Punitive actions, maybe
Eventually, and there should be a timeline in mind, you might have to move to a progressive punitive phase (write-up, termination), but first start with a discussion and try to fix things by Q&A and getting participation in the solution. Human beings respond better to being part of fixing things than being the subject of an inquisition or interrogation.

Applying this to your business
This doesn’t only work with dishwashers in a restaurant, it’s applicable to managing people in other industries. Let’s say you are the leader in a group of bloggers. I’m in one of them now. See if you can apply the leader among peers suggestions above to your group.

The tech space is boring me a bit lately, including CES which didn’t come out with anything that exciting from what I’ve seen so far, so I’m going to share some other tips. If you have some good tips to share about working with and managing other people, please leave them in the comments below and let’s discuss.

Got an inside track to who’s going to win the Republican and/or Democrat caucus in New Hampshire today? At Predictify.com you can make a few pennies if you’re right, but hurry and get your votes in.

There is a star system based on user participation ranging from a bronze star at 100 points to a platinum star for 10,000 points. With roughly 30 minutes involvement at the site I’ve made 85 cents and have 62 community points. Being that the minimum payout is $20, talk to me in like, well, a long time to see if Predictify pays. The top earning person on the site has made $113.76 and 76 people have made over $20 as of this writing. In other words, this is not a moneymaking opportunity site.

Community points are received for activities at the site like:

- 10 points: submitting a premium question (this costs $1 per prediction)
- 5 points: referring a new user
- 5 points: submitting a free question (only 200 responses can be received)
- 3 points: send a friend invite that is accepted if you click the Predictify graphic above, that has my referrer code in it)
- 3 points: post a comment
- 1 point: submit a prediction.

It’s strange that the least amount of points is attributed to the most vital part of the site: the predictions. Yes, you need outcomes to predict, but are the questions worth five times the amount of the predictions themselves? I can understand submitting premium questions being more valuable because that’s one of the ways the site is being monetized, but I’d argue that the # of points for predictions, particularly predictions from those who have a higher percentage of predicting the outcome should receive more points.

Predictify does incent those who predict the outcomes more correctly by paying them a higher percentage of the premium questions. I’m at the Scholar level (50-74% accuracy) for Politics, which means if I answer a premium question correctly in this category I’ll receive 1.5 multiplier of the payout. The highest level one can achieve is Guru (90-99% accuracy) which receives 2.0 multiplier. Again, don’t get too excited about the money angle, because there is a small percentage (~5%) of premium questions available.

I didn’t see any banner or contextual ads at Predictify. It appears the only way the site is making money is from taking a cut of the premium questions but I’m guessing at least with the sports outcome questions they could turn around and be selling the Predictify outcomes on a sportsbetting site (outside the US where online gambling is legal, of course). They prevent others for using free questions in certain ways: “Predictify may not be used for securities replication, odds-making, betting, gambling, or wagering.”

The New York Times has a subdomain using Predictify for the NFL playoffs at nytimes.predictify.com.

Not sure the NY Times tie-in as I don’t see any API, but if/when they decide to release one (?) news of this will probably appear first at the official Predictify blog, which uses TypePad.

Summary and grade
There have been so many voting-type sites come and go over the years that the outlook for Predictify is not good. If the site keeps the current clean design and maintains enough interest, they’ll last longer than most. Definitely need a higher percentage of premium questions to help maintain interest and if an API isn’t available, they need one yesterday. Grade: C+

Remember the wall that switches from TV to scenery in the science fiction movie Total Recall? The scene where Sharon Stone’s character tries to district Arnold Schwarzenegger from paying attention to the TV playing on the wall.

Panasonic, who is responsible for the 150 inch plasma TV at CES shared a concept that sounds similar to that movie scene:

… concept called LifeWall, and something called “You Know Me TV,” which involves having full wall adjustable video screens. This a lot like a concept of full-wall HD screens that Microsoft’s Bill Gates mentioned in his keynote.

Still in search of that “must be there [at CES 2008] to see this” moment. With the cool media advancements of Podtech’s Bloghaus with live video through Mogulus (see mogulus.com/podtech_ces_live), it’s like you are almost in the room talking to the people beating their feet (literally) up and down the show floor.

Update 1/8/08 2:03pm PST: Gizmodo has pictures of the 150-inch TV showing an elephant next to a man. Gives perspective of the size.

By the time you read this the doors to the biggest consumer electronics show in the world will be open in bustling Las Vegas, Nevada. For those who’ve never been there, this is also the technology swag mecca; tons of goodies. If you go to CES, plan to pack an empty suitcase worth of goodies to bring back.

CES 2008 kicked off last night with what is being billed somewhat sadly as Bill Gates “last” CES keynote. He’s hosted the CES keynote 11 times and 8 times consecutively, with the first in 1994. You can watch it at microsoft.com/ces using Microsoft Silverlight platform inside your browser.

Silverlight is Microsoft’s cross OS compatible answer to Flash and being widely toted (by them) as a viable alternative. While writing this post and listening to Gates keynote in a separate tab using Windows Vista Silverlight crashed Firefox. I decided to try Silverlight on the Mac with Firefox instead and see how that went. I’ll update before the end of this post if it doesn’t crash (Update: it didn’t on the Mac, go figure).

Summarizing Gates Keynote
In case you don’t want to sit through the Gates keynote, here’s a brief rundown on what happens.

The Xbox 360 is showing prominently in the living room in the “if you believe in magic” video opening as Microsoft chairman Bill Gates enters the stage. He’s dressed in typical Gates attire, a drab purple sweater. He segues into a spoof video of his last day at Microsoft which is funny. Did he just play Mario on a Guitar Hero guitar? Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Bono and others are included.

Afterwards Gates shares statistics that PC sales have increased 13% over the last year and then has offers a demo of a program that makes panaromas out of pictures, looks baked into Windows. And then to Microsoft’s perceived geek tabletop of the future: Surface. I love the idea behind touchscreen activity but touch doesn’t work very well for everything.

A keyboard is really important for typing. I wonder if Surface will display a QWERTY keyboard and let you type on it? How will that would feel typing on a flat surface? I see IGT (disclaimer: I own IGT stock) is one of the Surface partners. Does this mean we’ll see this used a lot more in future slot machines?

Robbie Bach comes out on stage next and shares stats on Xbox Live and other media properties. Microsoft has now passed the 10 million subscribers mark and they currently sell more online content than the Wii and PS3 combined.

Zune - The new versions are doing well according to Bach. Microsoft believes Zune has become a clear alternative to iPod. Zune Social now has 1.5 million members. There is some discussion of Zune cards which are similar to Xbox Live gamer cards, only focusing a la last.fm on activity around/inside Zune like your favorite songs and artists (e.g my zune card is located at: http://social.zune.net/member/XBoxTDavid).

Next up: Gates on the future - he holds a device that you can point at people, places and things and it recognizes them. Reminded me of scanning bar codes on the useful inventory program Delicious Library.

Close on a rocking note
Bach and Gates bring out Guitar Hero in a $20 bet. Bach has a famous Xbox Live player playing Welcome to the Jungle and Gates brings in a ringer: Slash! The crowd has what sounded like to me the biggest keynote applause of the night for the former Guns ‘N Roses guitarist. Microsoft upstaged by a guitar legend?

The Slash applause factor sums up the keynote which was lackluster. Nothing that new or revolutionary. If this is Gate’s last keynote ever, it went out with a whimper.

Update 1/7/08 10am PST: Wow, looks like I’m not the only one unimpressed with the keynote. Duncan at Techcrunch says it sucked. Let me save you some more time by showing you one of the best parts: the Gates last day video below:

Video: Bill Gates Last Day CES Clip

If news that 11 spammers have been indicted over pump-and-dump stock schemes doesn’t make you even more skeptical of financial tips from strangers, maybe the following story will.

I received this message from TC through Zecco this morning:

Hi, new to investing and was wondering if you would give some tips which would be a good newsletter to subscribe to for my short and long term trading? Is this robot Bull**** or does it work. Thanks for your time.

The “robot” TC is describing is advertised as a Google contextual ad showing at Zecco (pictured atop) and a clickthru leads to the site along the right DayTradingCoach.com (sorry, no link).

I had never heard of this program but am immediately skeptical of any deal which is presented like this on a web page. It’s in the whole get rich quick format which you see on thousands of different one page pitches. Too many sites which use this format have gotten rich off selling information that can usually be found with some specific internet searches, not rich from the information itself.

Being a geeky guy, I was intrigued if I could find this “robot” for sale anywhere. Can you actually buy the “robot?” It doesn’t appear from my searches that you can, but hey, you can buy a newsletter.

Surprise, surprise, all that Michael and Carl want is your email address and name. There’s a “don’t worry we won’t sell your name and address” disclaimer at the bottom of the page. I decided on TC’s behalf to enter in a specially tagged email address and see what their email autoresponder sent my way.

The first email was a validation link from somebody named “Jens Clever.” This isn’t the Beav’s mom (June Cleaver), and was coming from the following address:

Trading Coach LLC
100 Wall Street, New York, NY 10005, USA

Before clicking the validation I would be giving this organization permission to send me information, I wanted to sniff around a bit more. I was on a mission to find this stock robot promised in the Google served ad, not be sent in a circle buying into newsletter offers. I perform some Google searches for “Trading Coach LLC” and see what others on the web were saying. I was led to the site spamstocktrader.com which tracks a fictitious portfolio of buying and selling spam stocks. Now check out the email disclaimer reposted by spamstocktrader (emphasis mine):

You are hereby advised that Daytradingcoach.com / Trading Coach LLC / Jens Clever is receiving a cash fee of two thousand and thirty two dollars from the company shown above (or its agent) as compensation for the distribution of this email.

$2,032 for distributing information about a stock trade in an email. TC, are you paying attention to this? You don’t need to be a farmer to smell this manure. No thanks, Jens Clever, I passed on giving you my email address so you could send me stock tips that you were being paid to put in emails.

The spider web of email finance newsletters
Now back to the original web page. Page two was another web page going on and on about a (second?) newsletter. Imagine that, another page with another sales spiel for, yes, a newsletter selling hot stock tips.

But where is this amazing “robot” that the ad teased? Apparently the “robot” is just used by the people who write these emails? Is it a “robot” that must only output information when money is scanned into it?

Sorry there is no bot for sale, only a newsletter with “468 spots left” so act quick! I wonder if the next prospect who comes along sees 468 spots left too or is this some random number for each prospect? Are you kidding? A newsletter with a limited number of subscribers? I’ve never heard of any email newsletter that was only allowed to a limited number of subscribers, have you? Digital limited, I guess, just don’t expect any of those subscribers to forward to their friends and family.

And then another request for a name and email, only this time no disclaimer that my name and email address wouldn’t be whored out:

Still only interested in the robot, not subscribing to some newsletter. I passed on filling out the second email. Ironically enough, Michael’s office is in downtown Seattle “across from City Hall” according to the web page at the following address:

Global Marketing Company LTD
93 S. Jackson Street #56595
Seattle, WASHINGTON 98104-2818, UNITED STATES

Oddly, the phone number offered isn’t a Seattle-based 206 area code number, it’s a number from the UK. . Here’s a link to a Google hybrid map of the area or embed below for those with readers that allow IFRAME:

View Larger Map

Michael offers availability of his physical address to the lifetime subscribers of his newsletter. Pay only $47 and you can stop by and see him during office hours any time. I should go down to 93 S. Jackson Street #56595 and see what’s actually there. Being it’s Sunday, it would have to be a work day. Maybe someday when I’m down that direction I’ll drop in and see if Michael is available.

Moral of the story for TC and others
I’m sure by now TC who I’ll be pointing to this post in a response will see what you need to do with advertisements and offers: verify the information and sources are credible. Perform Google searches and see what others are saying about the service. Due diligence.

I’m not suggesting there aren’t any stock newsletters or that the ones mentioned above might occasionally offer stocks you can actually make money by following their tips but you have to ask yourself if those tips were so great overall, so irresistibly financially attractive, why would they be selling the information? Wouldn’t they would be using those tips to make themselves a fortune and not be focusing on the very profitable business of getting paid to share these stocks in paid newsletters?

In our ongoing stock competition between my wife and I, both our portfolios are available for the world to see for zero, nadda, nothing, not even one penny. Open, transparent and including dollar amounts, # of shares when we bought and when we sold, and even notes about each trade. I’m far and away no stock expert and don’t write or sell newsletters offering stock tips, but I’m happy to offer three common sense guidelines for those new to stock investing: research, research, research.

Yes, that’s the same word repeated, but it’s the truth. TC, and friendly readers, if I was to trust somebody online that I didn’t know with making financial decisions, I’d look for a similar level of transparency about what stocks are being bought and sold. I’d examine the history and compare that to the information being shared in his/her/their newsletter. I’d perform Google searches and see what others who bought these newsletters are saying and how transparent they’re being about their own results from following the advice. Research, research, research.

Let’s close by going back to TC’s questions at the top of this post. I don’t subscribe to any paid stock newsletters so I’m not a good source to ask for what the best ones out there are for short term and/or long term trading. I do most my research through the search engines, analyzing companies including both past and recent news articles. In some cases my direct customer experience will compel me to buy or sell a stock.

As for if the “robot” mentioned in the ad is BS? Draw your own conclusions from the information available. Speaking purely for myself, if I could buy this bot somewhere and it wasn’t prohibitively expensive, I’d try it out and share the results — for free — not in any paid newsletter.

Maybe some readers have had positive experiences with paid newsletters? I understand Fool.com has a paid newsletter. At least that’s a name that’s been around awhile, TC, but no clue as to how good or bad the performance has been there. Just be careful out there. That’s the best advice any stranger or friend can give you involving any financial tip on the web.