Kodak is bankrupt.

Encyclopedia Britannica is gone.

Why?

Simple, new and improved ways of doing things have been created.

Why would you look something up in an Encyclopedia when you can Google it so much faster?

Personally, I used encyclopedias often as a kid.

Every time I had a question I would run upstairs and look up the answer. There’s probably something to reading quietly in your roomand absorbing the information that would be more conducive to learning than a flashy screen with 10 million suggestions but hey – people value their time and the masses have spoken.

I believe the next place that the masses will speak will be in the world of mutual funds.

Over a 10 year period, major mutual funds collect billions in fees with an average return of zero.

But I don’t need to look at the average experience.

I am just looking at my own.

My main mutual fund account is down 1% this year.

My pension plan is divided into three accounts and all three are down over 3% this year.

What’s going to happen in 10 years when my savings is lower than it used to be and it costs $100 to see a movie?

Uh Oh.

Thank goodness for my Fidelity trading account.

I just clicked on my portfolio performance for the year and it has me up 54.62%.

I called the Active Trader Pro services at Fidelity to confirm this number and the man told me it is normally one or two months behind.

That means I am up somewhere between 50% and 60% in 2012.

I asked him if they could send me a letter to verify this so I can publish it but was told that Fidelity is a conservative company and they would not do that.

I asked if I can publish it and he said “sure, just don’t show your account number or positions because those can be used to gain access to the account.”

So pretty much, all I can show is this:

+54.62%.

What might surprise you is I have more money in my mutual funds and pension plans than my trading account -by a lot!

Despite outperforming them, I can’t pull myself away from the idea that they are “safe.”

I have over 15 years of professional trading experience and I still can’t stop myself from putting money in places where I know it won’t move.

I like knowing it will be there but with the price of everything increasing at exorbitant rates,I know that is not enough.

That is why I always trade – To Take Some Of The Control Back.

With over one million newsletter readers, trading is not a necessity for me at this time.

The people who “handle” me in the office would even argue that it takes away from things I need to be doing.

There were times as recent as last year where I would go in a private room, put my headphones on and trade all day every day for a week at a time.

That was fun but other areas suffered and it needed to change.

Fortunately, I am not obsessed with trading this year.

I trade but I don’t “love it.”

That’s worked out well as I have been more emotionally neutral than ever before  and because of that – it’s been a fantastic year.

I still have a very nice size account so to be up 54.62% gives me that control back.

The smallest account I have makes enough to cover the losses in all the other mutual funds and still leaves me profitable and more importantly – increasing prices don’t bother me.

So when people contact me about wanting to trade my response is almost always the same …

I tell them to start small and see if that account can outperform everything else that is happening – first by % – and then in actual dollar amounts.

Start small and get proof of concept and then you can get the control back.

I put together a very low cost introduction to the type of trading I do.

Can I just give it away? Yes, but I always lose the free stuff I get.

I value what I pay for.

So if you want to try and take some control back in the stock market, here’s a very low cost but effective way to get started and let’s see where that can take you.

I know what it feels like to see negative numbers in front of your accounts and it’s nice to be able to do something about it.

 

All The Best,

Adam Mesh