Hey Coach,

Thanks for the insight (and a few good stocks to watch :)... I think sharing trading stories is an excellent use of our posting site when watching stocks becomes like watching paint dry. Much better than name calling and political rants void of facts.

On my side, I have to say I came into all this at a pretty bad time. A very good friend of mine gave me a number of tips and started to let me know about the silver story and led me to a few notable stocks. He had just recently placed his entire (considerable) bonus into a number of juniors and his favorite was ECU. I started to do a bit of research, but in all honesty I just looked spellbound at the % gains and losses each day. I HAD to get in... I started to invest in a number of stocks, SXG, GCU, GPR and ECU over the next year and watched in wonder as some of those stocks kept pushing upwards. I did a little day trading here and there and watched in wonder as I made the equivalent of a days pay on a well timed minor trade. Problem was the costs of trading were eating most of the profits, and the cheap trading sites were not as safe as a Swiss bank and usually didn't have CAD accounts... so forex exchange risks aplenty... :*(

Then the bottom fell out.

I found myself going... it can't get lower and watch it just drop and drop and drop. What was bought for 3.20 went as far down as .39. I didn't yell at my friend at all, I just marvelled at how calm a guy could be who had just lost 80% of his value. If he could be calm... so could I.

I learned something valuable in the whole crash. I was buying here and there on the way down and priced my way down in ECU to less than half my original average buy, eventually accumulating a pretty sizable holding in ECU. Now to fund it I shed a few I wish I hadn't (GCU and GPR are notable)... but I also bought a lot of SXG at .16 so that's been a pretty good move. I also started to accumulate physical silver.

What I have learned is simple. What the price is today means nothing. Buying good companies and selling bad ones is always a good idea. However as you stated, there is an opportunity in trading even the good ones that I like. I too have now started segregating my 'holding core' from my traders and trying to time the buying and selling. I'm getting better and better (I have to admit, Agoracom friends help a lot!) and can proudly say that since the bottom of that market, I have pretty much made money on nearly every trade & every stock I invested in so far. The ones I do best on are the ones I KNOW backwards and forwards... I know the full story, I watch the price daily... I just can feel when things will move and what is good and what is bad. I have also found a way to trade cheaper and to move my traders to the less safe, but more affordable online broker.

I know ECU. Probably not as well as you Coach or GWR, Pic, Scoutaz etc... but well. One thing I know in my gut is that ECU at 1.07 is just silly. I mean, I have a great business proposition for someone... lend me (starts scribbling on the back of a notepad... 331.9 million for shares + 100 million for a mine + 'incidentals'... which means beer= 500 million)...

500 Million and I will give you 1 billion in just 5 years. That's right. A 100% return on your investment in just 5 years. Trust me, you'll be happy and I will be freaking loaded.

Not sure what I could give as collateral, but hey my word is as solid as oak.

Anyhow, a big thanks to you Coach (and many others on the board)... perhaps you don't always realize it, but your educating many others and doing it for free. I hope I can repay that kindness by doing the same to others some day (and not get yelled at).

Soul