The Billionaire’s Club

Forbes has announced the “Forbes 400 Richest Americans” which they call “The Billionaires’ Club”. Everyone listed in this years Forbes 400 is a billionaire. That’s $1,000,000,000.

Here’s a snippet from the Forbes article at Yahoo:

This year, for the first time, everyone on The Forbes 400 has at least $1 billion. The collective net worth of the nation’s wealthiest climbed $120 billion, to $1.25 trillion.

Once again the biggest gainer is casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, with a net worth up $9 billion. Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands stock is up 125 percent since its public offering in December 2004. He has made almost $1 million an hour since the 2004 Forbes 400 was published.

Another big gainer is Warren Buffett, who added $6 billion. That wealth, and the rest of what he has accumulated as a value investor, will be given away, mostly to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

(from yahoo)

A Billion Served?

A trader I know posted this on a forum: “That’s just wrong, $1 million an hour. Half the world is starving, living on less than $3 a day, and some unknown fool is making a million US dollars an hour.”

The trader quickly added: “Adelson, if you’re reading this, give me an hour!”

I do not think we should simply take away some of this money these billionaires’ have worked hard to earn. But I do think there should be an additional tax on the super rich, such as these Forbes 400 billionaires. Any percentage tax on billions of dollars would mean tens of millions available to feed the hungry half of the world. I would be happy with this “special tax”, but I am biased since I do not have a billion dollars.

Related Links

• Forbes 400 Richest Americans: The Billionaires’ Club at Yahoo!
• Sheldon Adelson profile at Forbes. Mr. Adelson makes nearly $1 million dollars per hour from his casinos.

Stock prices dipped sharply after news of an attempted military coup in Thailand was reported.

Stocks, oil and US dollar currency are down, while bonds and gold are up.

From the AP news wire:

Traders watching Thailand closely are certain to remember how trouble in the kingdom has had worldwide implications in the past: The Asia currency crisis that erupted in 1997 began with the devaluation of the Thai baht, then snowballed into an international economic downturn. The baht fell sharply Tuesday.

Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was in New York attending the United Nations General Assembly, faced calls to step down amid allegations of corruption and abuse of power.

The news hit the market on a day stocks had been drifting lower following a sharp drop in the pace of U.S. housing starts in August. Housing starts fell 6 percent, twice as fast as expected. New housing construction notched its fifth decline in six months, hitting its lowest point in more than three years.

(Reported from AP Business news wire)

This uncertainty with Thailand as well as the poor US economic indicators and data is hitting the stock markets hard. If these various issues remain uncertain, we will see shaky action in the markets with the possibility of a minor correction wiping out many summer gains. I would like to see the Thailand issue resolved swiftly and peacefully, which would bolster the Asian and US stock markets.

Here’s a look at the Nasdaq index right now:

Links:

• Stocks Off After Coup Occurs in Thailand
• Thai Baht Falls Most Since 2002 as Premier Declares Emergency

I am happy to announce the opening of the Trading Winner Store. You can find books, computer upgrades, and more at the Trading Winner store.

The Featured Products page contains a list of great trading and investing books I recommend reading.

You can also find financial, business, and stock market related magazines I enjoy reading.

Check out the Trading Winner Store!

TradingWinner.com Mentioned in Financial Times (FT.com)

I was doing some research on Google and Yahoo and came across a Financial Times article NYSE gets French mentioning TradingWinner.com. I was pretty suprised and very happy to see Trading Winner and myself mentioned in a large, well respected financial publication - the Financial Times.

FT.com requires registration, but you can see a snippet of the article without having to register. Here’s what Financial Times had to say:

NYSE gets French

Published: June 5 2006 03:00 | Last updated: June 5 2006 03:00

Day traders gave the thumbs up to the deal struck by the New York Stock Exchange and Euronext to form the first transatlantic stock exchange. While questions remained over the role of rival Deutsche B^╘rse, the NYSE’s $10bn (£5.3bn) offer appeared to win the day. “NYSE Euronext would be trading across two conti-nents during 12 hours of trading. I think this would be fantastic. This would cause a lot more action in the markets with the potential for a lot of new traders and an inflow of capital. I’m waiting for 24-hour trading,” said a trader on www.tradingwinner.com.

Great publicity for TradingWinner.com and myself. I only wish they would have sent me an email letting me know I was being mentioned so I could have found out sooner!

Related Links

• My original article Financial Times refers to: NYSE Euronext Would Offer 12 Trading Hours
• The Financial Times article mentioning TradingWinner.com: NYSE gets French
• Financial Times web site

A Winner’s Winner

I am pleased to announce the winner of this month’s TradingWinner.com Book Giveaway of the book: Trading In The Zone by Mark Douglas.

Winner: Dominic

Congratulations Dominic!

I urge you all to read Dominic’ inspiring (and winning!) comment.

Dominic’s Winning Comment

Ok I’m new to the whole trading world. Thats right I’m fresh off the boat. My goal is to be good enough to do this full time. I’m sick of people telling what I can and can’t do in life. My goal is to be a very traders so I can open doors in my quest to be a full time invest and self-made millionare or billionare. I understand that I will be a very hard road. But I don’t really care. I have lose alot in the last 7 months with girlfriend, so called friends and etc. At 27 years old(turning 28 in couple week) I have nothing to lose. I don’t care how hard the road will be. I want to be a very succesful daytrader and investor. I hope everyone apply for this book gets what day want out dreams and fullfill them. I’m not going to spend 2-10k on so call gurus in the industry just to lose my money in seconds.

So I would love to get your book so I can start my path to my greatness. For me this is the first step to where I want to go. I’m not going to put my life on hold for anyone anymore.

I wish you would make a DVD about you books os I can play it over and over again. Even if I don’t win the book I hope every here finds their inner greatness and fullfill their dreams.

If you didn’t win this time

I am going to give away a free trading or investing related book each month. This is my way of giving back to all the supports of TradingWinner.com and to the trading community. One of my goals with TradingWinner.com is to promote education, discussion, and financial intelligence. My book giveaway is one avenue I am using to say thanks.

So, if you didn’t win Trading In The Zone, you can comment on my next giveaway article and hopefully you’ll win the next round. Good luck!

For those who are wondering, the winner is randomly selected from everyone who commented on my book giveaway article: Book Giveaway: Trading In The Zone by Mark Douglas.