Hi Carol,

Yes, I agree it is easy to lose a lot in the market if you're not careful....

I have a good friend, we have a kind of weekly "ritual".... every week we meet in a kebab place, and over dinner we talk about our mutual interest in shares, business, academia, physics (he's also a physicist too)....

We are both stock market investors, but our styles are opposites. I'm much more conservative, trying to follow a "Buffett"-style approach (I look for long term growth stocks)....

My friend's a day-trader. I used to dismiss day-trading, but now I think there may be some skill in doing it....

I thought I'd try day-trading once. I bought a stock (One-Tel, listed on the ASX, the Australian Stock Exchange) at $1.12 per share, on my friend's recommendation. A few days later, it started dropping, and I started to worry. I just felt really uncomfortable about it, so I sold it a few days afterwards at $1.08 per share (so I lost about 3.5 %)....

But within about 2 weeks, One-Tel had dropped to around 80 cents! Well....

That's my one experience with trying a day-trading approach.... :) I think it's generally not for me, though it may be for others.... :)

As for FX Futures, I'll probably go into it with some of my money, but only with a good advisor who I trust, and who has good contacts so that s/he has a feel for the "pulse" regarding what's going on in the world regarding currencies....!

But I wouldn't do anything high risk (like futures of any kind, for example) unless I felt willing to possibly lose the money I put into it, since that could happen!

Great message, thanks Carol... :)

Dien Rice