Contest winners + Features of the Week

Thanks to everyone who participated in this week's blog contest. I really appreciate all the feedback and suggestions that were offered to help us improve the blog.

Also, thanks to Aaron at MagsDirect.com for his help in sponsoring the contest giveaway, 2 free 1-year subscriptions to The Economist. I'm sure our contest winners will appreciate the prize.

I've selected Maria at Bear Mountain Books and John at Controlled Greed as this week's contest winners. Thanks for voicing your suggestions along with our other commenters (they were ALL great!), and I will email you to confirm your prize and pass your mailing info along to the publisher.

Now for some Friday links; our "Features of the Week".

1. Financial media coup d'etat - Wall St. Cheat Sheet.

2. John Paulson buys banks hit by credit crisis - Bloomberg.

3. Charting the markets: "Where to look next" - Quint Tatro.

4. Natural gas: down and out and unloved - Frank Barbera.

5. America: fat, drunk, and stupid is now way to go through life - Burning Platform.

6. The "Second American Revolution" has begun - Gerald Celente. (Hat tip: Bear Mountain Bull)

7. A "Four-Step Healthcare Solution" - Hans Hermann Hoppe, Mises.org.

8. Beware of confirmation bias - Financial Philosopher.

9. Do we really need daily doses of news? - Growthology.

10. Last Word: Les Paul (video) - NY Times.

Thanks for reading Finance Trends Matter. You can also keep up with our RSS blog feed, and follow this link to hang out with us on Twitter.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Nasdaq credit rating junked.

S&P cut Nasdaq's credit rating to junk status citing debt burdens and its questionable strategy to buy a controlling interest in the London Stock Exchange. Financial Times reported that the exchange's counterparty credit & bank loan rating were lowered fromm BBB- (lowest investment grade rating) to BB+. The change will increase Nasdaq's borrowing costs should it wish to pursue aquisition targets. For an earlier look at the exchange consolidation trend that brought about Nasdaq's push for a stake in the LSE, please see "Exchange fever" .

Clean Money - John Rubino: Book review

Clean Money by John Rubino 274 pages. Hoboken, New Jersey John Wiley & Sons. 2009. 1st Edition. The bouyant stock market environment of the past several years is gone, and the financial wreckage of 2008 is still sharp in our minds as a new year starts to unfold. Given the recent across-the-board-declines in global stock markets (and most asset classes) that have left many investors shell-shocked, you might wonder if there is any good reason to consider the merits of a hot new investment theme, such as clean energy. However, we shouldn't be too hasty to write off all future stock investments. After all, the market declines of 2008 may continue into 2009, but they may also leave interesting investment opportunities in their wake. Which brings us to the subject of this review. John Rubino, author and editor of GreenStockInvesting.com , recently released a new book on renewable energy and clean-tech investing entitled, Clean Money: Picking Winners in the Green Tech Boom . In Clean ...

Jesse Livermore: How to Trade in Stocks (1940 Ed. E-book)

If you've been around markets for any length of time, you've probably heard of 20th century supertrader, Jesse Livermore . Today we're highlighting his rare 1940 work, How to Trade in Stocks (ebook, pdf). But first, a brief overview of Livermore's life and trading career (bio from Jesse Livermore's Wikipedia entry). "During his lifetime, Livermore gained and lost several multi-million dollar fortunes. Most notably, he was worth $3 million and $100 million after the 1907 and 1929 market crashes, respectively. He subsequently lost both fortunes. Apart from his success as a securities speculator, Livermore left traders a working philosophy for trading securities that emphasizes increasing the size of one's position as it goes in the right direction and cutting losses quickly. Ironically, Livermore sometimes did not follow his rules strictly. He claimed that lack of adherence to his own rules was the main reason for his losses after making his 1907 and...

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