Then, September 2008 came along, then October…November…December…even January and a new year—yet the market was still going LOWER! Even a 1,000 point drop in the DOW in a single day—something that had never happened before in history!

Had I left my 'retirement dreams' invested in stocks in my mutual fund, I would be sitting here today looking at a 41% loss in value. (And, they say that the worst isn't over yet.) But, enough of that; there is (and can be) a much brighter side to this story, and I'd like to share a brighter thought or two with you.

We learned in our youth that " we …must be the captain of our own ship." How grateful I am to a young lady (actually a stranger), who asked me (another stranger) if I knew about trading e-mini's? My response was: "What's an 'e-mini'?"

I had been active in the stock market all of my adult life…investing a little here, a little there as I could afford to, but I had never even heard the word 'e-mini' before meeting her.

What she told me in a very brief conversation about how she makes money in the stock market, set me on a whole new life-changing course. I immediately closed my little business I'd run successfully (making a decent living) for over 25 years, so I could devote my full attention to learning how to trade e-mini's. I invited my employees to follow me. I've never looked back. I will forever be grateful to her for asking a stranger …if he knew about trading e-minis.

Now, I'm that stranger….asking you if you know about trading e-mini's? Whether you've ever heard the word before, (most folks still haven't!), or even if you are a stock day trader, and especially, if you are an investor, agonizing over the present state of your portfolio, would it inspire you if I tell you that we e-mini traders have had the best, most profitable trading conditions since last September that have ever been known in the history of the stock market? Yes, in deed!

We're a very conservative bunch: we don't take much risk and we know how to manage well even what risk we do take. We look at e-mini day trading as just a nice safe little 'home business' that we can do on our laptop…trading a couple of hours each morning.

Doesn't take much money: Minimum $2,000 to open a trading account, but I recommend keeping $10,000 in your account…so you can take advantage when market days like we've seen recently come along. We normally concentrate on just 'grinding out' an average of $500 a day for oneself–doing 2-3 trades each morning; but, recently we've had days when we made an entire month's income goal in single days—several times!

VOLATILITY…and especially, wide ranging volatility is why e-mini trading has been so profitable– whether the market is going UP or DOWN.

As I said in the beginning—I never would have even dreamed that such BAD times could also be such GOOD times. There truly is a 'silver lining' in this present BLACK, ominous cloud that's hanging over the stock market.

This stranger would like to do for you now…what that lady did for me back in early 2002. There's a ton of FREE information for you should you care to visit http://www.EminisBeatStocks.com The only thing there that I'm selling is my book that I've designed to be a 'road map' for anyone wanting to follow in my footsteps.

Any questions? Please post them along with any comments, here on my blog.

I was invited as a guest of TradeGuider, to mingle at the seminar and help 'spread the word' about e-mini's and the TradeGuider software. Of the 180 traders in attendance, I didn’t find one who was even aware of the ‘e-mini’ let alone how much more advantage e-mini’s offer, as compared to ordinary stocks. It’s amazing, because the e-mini has been around since 1997, yet those who only know [and think] ‘stocks’ have somehow never managed to bump into it. I guess myopic vision really is a common frailty of human nature.

Here’s just a couple of the advantages: To place a trade on a $20 stock you need $20 cash in your account for every share you want to put in your trade; A 1,000 share trade would require $20,000 CASH, plus commissions for your brokerage. You go LONG … and successfully capture a 50 cent per share profit. The trade has produced for you $500 profit. Your ROI = 2.5%

Now, let’s do a trade with e-mini’s. You need $500 cash in your account for each e—mini 'contract' you want to place in a trade, e.g. a 5-contract trade would require $2,500 cash. You go LONG again…and your trade successfully captures 2 points of the S&P 500 Index. Each point is worth $50 per contract. You had placed 5 contracts in the trade (times) the 2 Index points you captured = 10 total points, worth $50 each = $500 profit.

Your ROI on the e-mini trade = 20%! That’s ten times greater! And, you only needed $2,500 verses $20,000 for the stock trade! You could have been in the trade as little as ten minutes. And, you can make profitable trades like this even when the market is going DOWN by going 'short'.

Stocks don’t even come close to e-mini’s when it comes to ‘bang for the buck’.  Ask any e-mini trader and they'll tell you that e-mini's offer the fastest, safest, most profitable way and least costly ($$ needed) way to participate in the stock market.

If these numbers catch your interest and you would like to hear more about trading e-mini’s, you’ll find several hours of free information on my web site. Incidentally, there’s a good reason why the public has never heard much about the ‘e-mini’. Mutual fund managers and stock brokers will never tell you anything about e-mini’s because they know you’ll want to do your own trading yourself. The 'e-mini' was designed for first-timers in the stock market, a financial trading instrument that ordinary folks could afford to learn to trade with.

Check it out. Give e-mini trading a shot. You’ll never look back….especially if you are an experienced stock trader.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L8kSTErib4

1) Some mysterious place where the rich people gamble; then…

2) When we learn a little about it…. we see it as a place where we can put some of our money and it has a chance to grow (over time);

3) Even though our money is always ‘at risk’ in stocks, still the stock market produces better than a bank savings account or CD ever does. (Usually, that is.)

When you were a kid in school, and even through college, were you ever taught anything about the stock market other than the bare essential of ‘investing for the long haul’?

‘Investing’ is always the key word. Have you ever heard or read a brokerage firm or a Mutual Fund’s advertisement that talked about anything but investing? Investing is the only thing most folks know about financial opportunities and planning. Their ads have convinced you that you aren’t capable of doing your own planning, though…..let alone your own investing. They very blatantly tell us that [we] all should leave [our] planning to the ‘professionals.’ Namely, them.

Some 80-million Americans buy into their pitch….turning their financial planning and retirement hopes and dreams over to them. Those who want to get a little more involved, and learn a little about what’s going on, soon begin discovering one ‘eye-opener’ after another. Once you do, you’ll never do things the same way again.

First of all, you'll discover that —

1) The Stock Market historically (since its beginning in 1896), has averaged 10-15% annual growth…even with all of the bad times averaged in! In other words, if one truly went ‘for the long haul’ their portfolio would have grown, regardless of depressions, Wars, 9-11…..and even Sept 2008! Their stock market investment would have beaten anything the banks offer; And, still can.

2) The second big ‘eye-opener’ would be discovering that trading (verses passive investing) allows one to take advantage of the UP’s and DOWN’s the Market is constantly experiencing;

3) The third is that the ‘Insiders’—the brokers and mutual fund managers, are the one’s who really know how to make the Stock Market pay off….by trading all day everyday! But, they preach only ‘investing’ to their clients. If you understand ‘shorting’ and the full nature of the agreement you signed when you opened your stock account or mutual fund, acknowledging that your money is ‘at Full-Risk,’ then you’ll recognize whose money it is that makes it possible for them to trade everyday at the levels they do. But, you and your portfolio? One can only hope that the stocks you think you are a long-term investor in, do grow over time. If they don’t? Oh, well…you acknowledged that you were ‘at full risk’ so the ‘manager’ is protected no matter what. He can trade with your stocks (sitting in their ‘house account’) and you’ll never know the difference. (He might even get real greedy and trade in your actual account. But then, that would be called ‘churning your account to collect extra commissions’. He might get his hands slapped if you noticed it and complained.)

4) The fourth (and greatest) ‘eye-opener’ of all is that –with a little bit of knowledge, you can enjoy the same tremendous advantages of being a ‘trader’ yourself— right along with them! Thanks to the Internet and the personal computer, the Stock Market has been changed forever. With these tools and a little trading knowledge, the playing field has been leveled for you with them. Instead of long-term hoping, you can now make it your daily cash flow generating machine, just like they do.

Oh, they don’t like it! Vested interests in the status quo never welcome change!

It’s much more than just losing those big commissions you pay your stock broker or mutual fund manager that’s worrying them. Perhaps they are beginning to see where the Internet and PC might make them, and their jobs, ‘museum pieces’. To fight it, they never talk about it. Self-trading and the ‘e-mini’ are the last things in this world they want you to discover. As a note of interest… a study in 2005 of the 'value of a broker or mutual fund manager to his client-vs-the amount of money he makes' revealed that the average mid-level portfolio manager makes $472,000 a year;  Senior level managers make $750,000 to a million a year.  The client is fortunate (and happy as all get out) if his portfolio gains 10-15% appreciation a year. (11.2% in 2007)

But….doesn't the Stock Market average that on it's own? None other than Warren Buffett–himself, said that "equity investors could do better if they listened to no one." (From comments in his cover letter to Berkshire Hathaway stockholders in the 2005 Annual Report)

All things considered…. Is it any wonder that when the ‘e-mini’ was introduced by one of the exchanges (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) in 1997 as a financial instrument that average folks could afford to learn to trade with on their new computer and via the Internet, that 11 years later, so many, many people have [still] never even heard of it, yet?

If you would like to learn more, there’s a ton of FREE information available at my web site www.melhardman.com

Also, you'll find this short video on YouTube very interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L8kSTErib4

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