Electric Metals market heating up as Electric Cars hit the road in 2010.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Mitsubishi contracts with Toshiba to supply Lithium Batteries and Toyota contracts Panasonic to supply lithium batteries as competitors jump into EV market!

As the Tesla, ForTwo, Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt launch this year, investors are quickly realizing that,  each one of these new vehicles runs on Lithium batteries. Each one uses approximately 8 pounds of lithium, now coming to be known as the "electric metal"!

The Lithium market is heating up as the tide goes out on oil, and 2010 is the year everyone will remember as the real start of the lithium boom. With the advent of the electric vehicle market, China believes lithium will be the oil of the 21st century. They are not alone in that assumption. The worlds largest supplier of lithium, SQM of Chile, has already seen it's stock price sky rocket over the past two years and is, at this writing, looking to expand it's already large holdings in the lithium salars of Chile. There is, however, a growing segment of this market that has a huge upside for savvy investors. The Junior miners.


Our Top five Junior Lithium Miners in order:


1 .Salares Lithium (LIT-TSX)  -Conviction stock pick

Owns over 117,000 hectares (288,990 acres in the Atacama region of Chile, encompassing 7 Salars (brine lakes) nearby SQM operations. The project is called Salares 7.  50% of the worlds current lithium production comes from this area of Chile with the largest producer being SQM.

This is one of the best, pure play Lithium ventures anywhere today with a depth of resource now measured at over 300 meters in a region that already produces 50% of the worlds current lithium supply and is nearby the largest lithium producer in the world.

Salares Lithium wholly owns 100% of 5 of those Salars, which is unique in the industry and very important in South American mining. Many others "share" deposits on the same properties (that would be the equivalent of two people placing two separate straws in the same soft drink).

Salares now has a giant Lithium footprint, as large as anyone on the planet (read the article: Size matters ) They also have a very focused management team and institutional investors are in on this play. At this writing Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. (NYSE-SQM), the worlds largest producer of lithium carbonate (the main ingredient in any lithium battery) has shown specific interest in the properties of Salares Lithium prompting Salares to upgrade their property to the development stage this month. We think this company is a likely takeover target.

Click here for analyst opinions on Salares Lithium!

(UPDATE--- July 15 2010 - Salares swallowed by Talison of Australia, the #1 supplier of lithium to China)

2. TNR Gold Corp (TNR-TSX)

We think TNR is the "sleeper" in this space and is currently flying under the radar of most investors.  TNR Owns 16 gold, copper, Lithium, and REE properties in Nevada, Canada, Argentina and Ireland.

More importantly, TNR "owns 100% of International Lithium Corp"which it will spin off next month in an IPO.

ILC owns 9 Lithium brine properties in Argentina, Nevada, and Canada, while TNR will retain it's gold, copper and rare earth deposits in Canada and Ireland as well as one Lithium play in Argentina. TNR may actually be the best "short term" play in the sector as it prepares the IPO for International Lithium Corp. as owners of TNR stock will automatically own stock and warrants in International Lithium when it is spun out next month. (one share and one warrant for every 4 shares of TNR) Thereby owning "both" companies after the IPO next month.

Institutional Holders of TNR stock include some serious players:   Barrick Gold, Pinetree Capital, Tocqueville Fund, Solitario, and NovaGold.

Research notes on TNR gold Corp. 

3. Western Lithium USA (WLC-TSX)

WLC owns over 50,000 acres of proven, lithium reserves in Nevada. One of the only pure lithium plays in the USA with proven reserves. This is one of the worlds largest, proven Lithium deposits at 47 million tons, mine ready, located in mining friendly Nevada with quick access to buyers in North America.

On May 31st Western Lithium changed it's name to Western Lithium USA to more reflect it's intention to supply Lithium to that market.WLC should be part of every investors lithium portfolio.


4. Rodina Lithium (RM-TSX)  (formerly Rodina Minerals)

Besides it's recent acquisitions of Diablillos, Centenario and Ratones in the Salars of Argentina on the Puna Plateau, RM owns a substantial lithium property in Clayton Valley Nevada  Rodinia has 100% mineral rights to 50,440 acres in Nevada’s lithium-rich Clayton Valley in Esmeralda County approx 80 mi. from where Western Lithium is working, and is currently in the process of assessing the size, quality and processing alternatives of its Lithium Brine Project. Early estimates put the valley’s lithium deposits as high as 700 million kg, ranking it second only in size to the deposits found in Chile.

Rodina Lithium-RM is one of the top Lithium picks of Byron Capital Markets analyst, Dr. Jon Hykawy who is, arguably, one of the foremost Lithium experts in the market today! RM is also a favorite of the gold report.(theaureport.com)

5. Latin American Minerals Inc. (LAT-TSX)  

Besides gold, copper and silver, LAT owns a 17.4% stake in Lithium Americas Corp. (LAC) which has a big stake in the Salars on the Argentina side. LAT also owns rare earth properties (REE's). Lithium Americas properties include over 100,000 Hectares encompassing 5 salars (salt lakes) on the Argentina side of the Puna Plateau.You can buy LAT now (currently .15 cents) to own 17.4% of Lithium Americas,  (which we have done), or you can buy Lithium Americas (LAC) at the IPO price of $1.80

Strategic Investors in Lithium Americas already include:

• Magna International Inc.
• Mitsubishi Corporation
• PineTree Capital corp.

Tesla (seen on the left) has already launched it's North American IPO.Nissan has "pre-sold" 20,000 of it's new, lithium-ion powered Nissan "leaf" which launches in December, at a unit cost of $25,000. GM is ramping up for the launch of the Chevrolet "Volt" (right) in early 2011.

Tidbits:

The journal, MIT Technology Review published advancement in lithium air
batteries (also called lithium-metal-air batteries) for large scale applications.
Lithium-metal batteries approach the energy density of fuel cells without the plumbing
needed for these devices; in theory, the maximum energy density is more than 5,000 watt hours
per kilogram, or more than 10 times that of today's lithium-ion batteries. Lithium
metal-air batteries are also very lightweight because it's not necessary to carry a second
reactant.  
Lithium metal is "the holy-grail battery material," says Steven Visco, chief
technical officer and founder of PolyPlus

 

Energy research company Frost and Sullivan, says the battery market is set to grow massively.
The lithium-ion battery market for electric and hybrid vehicles is, he says, conservatively-estimated to be set to grow from 2,400 units in 2008 to 1.53 million units by 2015. "The world's dependence on oil will decline and will be replaced by other fuels, such as lithium batteries."


President Barack Obama has said he wants a million hybrid electric cars on America's roads by 2015.  At a groundbreaking ceremony for a new lithium-ion battery plant on Monday, Vice President Joe Biden said such factories could reduce US dependence on foreign oil and prevent disasters like the Deepwater Horizon oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.
"This is the beginning of a revolution in the production of energy in the country,"said Biden.



Happy Retirefund!

HAP

Disclosure:  Accumulating Junior lithium stocks summer 2010.

• Demand for Lithium Is Poised to Take Off (nytimes.com)
• Our Journey Toward Public EV Quick-Charging Begins (wired.com)
• "Boston-Power Raises $60 Million, Seeks Stimulus Money In China" and related posts (techpulse360.com)
• Carbon Nanotube Electrodes Boost Power in Lithium Batteries, Study Says (cleantechies.com)
• Tesla Unveils Roadster 2.5 - a New Body and a Sexier Look (inhabitat.com)
• Tesla electric cars do 0-£1.3bn in a day with Elon Musk at the wheel (guardian.co.uk)
• Tesla Roadster - an Amazing Electric Sports Car! (athingforcars.com)
• Rodinia Minerals Inc. (TSX-V: RM) (OTCQX: RDNAF) Sets New Work Program to Further Test High-Grade Lithium-Potash Horizons at Salar de Diablillos (your-story.org)
• Running On Air (forbes.com)
• Lithium Battery Market 2010-2015 by Rick Mills -Aheadofthecurve

Carbon Sciences Believes Gas-to-Liquids Fuel Technology Key to Energy Independence

Image via Wikipedia

Editors note: Carbon Sciences Inc (CABN-OTC) is developing a new breed of "Nano-Reactor" that should revolutionize the nascent carbon capture and conversion industry allowing for the commercialization of converting carbon emissions (from coal and oil fired industries and from natural gas ie: from landfills) directly into usable gasoline, "without" using high energy heat.


The company has already demonstrated it's technology works, and expects to have a working reactor by the end of Q3 2010. The sector is now referred to as Gas to Liquids or "GTL" and it is growing. The company's president, Byron Elton, was recently interviewed by Ally Velchie on CNN Business and that interview can be found at: http://www.carbonsciences.com/01/youtubeplayer.html
 


NEWS RELEASE
GTL Technology is Best Candidate to End USA’s Addiction to Petroleum and Provide 100% of Needed Transportation Fuel

Santa Barbara, CA - June 22, 2010 - Carbon Sciences, Inc. (CABN), the developer of a breakthrough technology to transform greenhouse gases into gasoline and other portable fuels, today asserts its belief that Gas-To-Liquids (GTL) fuel technology is key to the United States goal of energy independence following the release of the Annual Energy Outlook 2010 projections from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

“The crisis that our country faces is how to obtain the quantities of liquid fuel required to maintain our standard of living and drive future growth without using petroleum, foreign or domestic,” stated Byron Elton, CEO, Carbon Sciences. “The EIA predicts that world energy consumption will skyrocket 49 percent over the next 25 years. Of all the alternative fuel technologies under development, GTL technology is the only one with the ability to significantly replace petroleum and provide the nearly 140 billion gallons of gasoline we use each year,” added Elton.

Gas-to-liquids is a refinery process that converts natural gas and other gaseous hydrocarbons into longer chain hydrocarbons such as gasoline. Carbon Sciences announced earlier this year a patent filing for a breakthrough CO2 based GTL technology to transform greenhouse gases into liquid, portable fuels.

“The use of natural gas and carbon dioxide as the feedstock for our transportation fuels offers significant advantages over petroleum,” stated Elton. “The US has over 2,000 trillion cubic feet of known, but unexplored, natural gas reserves. Our CO2 based GTL technology, when fully commercialized, can be used to produce enough gasoline for the US for 47 years without competing with current natural gas consumption of 25 trillion cubic feet, and without using a teaspoon of oil,” he added.

Many companies, including all the major oil companies have been increasing their investments in the GTL sector. Royal Dutch Shell has invested $19 billion dollars in Pearl GTL in Qatar, the world’s largest GTL plant.

“The ongoing disaster in the Gulf is a wakeup call to the United States, and the world, that we must develop alternative, domestic sources of cleaner transportation fuels that will fit into the existing infrastructure, supply chain and vehicles,” added Dr. Naveed Aslam, Chief Technology Officer for Carbon Sciences.

To imagine a world without petroleum and learn more about Carbon Sciences' breakthrough technology, please visit www.carbonsciences.com

About Carbon Sciences, Inc.

Carbon Sciences, Inc. is developing a breakthrough CO2 based gas-to-liquids technology to transform greenhouse gases into liquid portable fuels, such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Innovating at the forefront of chemical engineering, we are developing highly scalable clean-tech processes to produce liquid fuels from naturally occurring or human-made greenhouse gas emissions. From sources such as natural gas fields, refinery flare gas, landfill gas, municipal waste, algae and other biomass, there is an abundant supply of inexpensive feedstock available to produce large and sustainable quantities of liquid fuel to replace petroleum for global consumption, thereby eliminating our dependence on petroleum. To learn more about the Company, please visit our website at http://www.carbonsciences.com.

Subscribe to the Carbon Sciences Newsletter

To receive regular news about this industry and Carbon Sciences on a regular basis, you can subscribe here!

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Oil-Gas and a sea change in energy policy!

"The BP oil spill will change energy policy the way 9/11 changed security policy"

Barrack Obama

Currently, there is the equivalent of an Exxon Valdez, pouring into the gulf of Mexico waters, every four days and in case you weren't paying attention when he spoke recently, the U.S. President spoke words that will change the game, and the playing field, for energy companies and investors, forever! His message is summed up in one line. "The BP oil spill will change energy policy the way 9/11 changed security policy".

If you think these are empty words, than you can stop reading right now. Personally, I believe this president will do his utmost, to change the dynamic in complete favor of alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, nuclear, fuel cells electric cars and energy storage such as the advancement of lithium based batteries for both electric vehicles and for the energy grid.

This statement was indeed, the opening shot, in a war on dirty oil, dirty coal, unstable gas etc. There is a sea change approaching in energy investments, nay, it is a tidal wave coming in the United States of America and by proxy, in the rest of the world.

Deep water drilling has been stopped in it's tracks, especially in the gulf, and those companies heavily weighted to that method of oil extraction will be affected, in the negative, over time.  consequently, those oil companies (yes we will need oil for the foreseeable future) that are heavily weighted to onshore supplies (Devon, Suncor, Cenovus) will profit, maybe extraordinarily so and analysts believe Canadian energy companies are undervalued.

If you are an investor in oil and gas, you cannot ignore this coming sea change. The big dogs of oil have given this president all the ammunition to make this sea change (which has been 40 years in the making)

Don't expect this president to sit on his hands like Dubbya did. As an investor, you do so at your peril.

HP

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Salares Lithium Information to be Available Through Standard & Poor’s Market Access Program

Image by TheTruthAbout... via Flickr

NEWS RELEASE
Vancouver, BC –June 10, 2010 –(TSXV: LIT). Salares Lithium Inc. (the “Company") announced today that its company information will be made available via Standard & Poor's Market Access Program, an information distribution service that enables subscribing publicly traded companies to have their company information disseminated to users of Standard & Poor's Advisor Insight.

The company information to be made available through this program includes share price, volume, dividends, shares outstanding, company financial position, and earnings. Standard & Poor's Advisor Insight is an Internet-based research engine used by more than 100,000 investment advisors. A public version of the site is available at www.advisorinsight.com. In addition, information about companies in Standard & Poor's Market Access Program will be available via S&P's Stock Guide database, which is distributed electronically to virtually all major quote vendors.

As part of the program, a full description of Salares Lithium Inc. will also be published in the Daily News section of Standard Corporation Records, a recognized securities manual for secondary trading in up to 38 states under their Blue Sky Laws. “It was important to the Company to try to broaden its exposure in the U.S. market. This Standard & Poor’s listing provides transparency to U.S. investors and allows, under Blue Sky Law, for the trading of the Company’s securities in the majority of the United States,” commented Todd Hilditch, CEO of the Company.

About Salares Lithium Inc.
Salares Lithium Inc. is a lithium explorer in Chile that controls the ‘Salares 7’ lithium project made up of seven
salares (brine lakes that are prospective for sub-surface lithium and potassium) and the surrounding concessions in Region III, Chile. Five of the seven salares are clustered within 155 kilometres and are 100% owned by the Company and its Chilean partner.

Contacts:
Salares Lithium Inc.
Todd Hilditch
President and CEO
Tel: (604) 443-3831
http://www.salareslithium.com/

Standard and Poor’s Customer Contact:
Richard Albanese
212 438-3647
richard_albanese@standardandpoors.com

Salares Lithium last traded at .64
Byron Capital markets has initiated coverage with a target price of $1.40

Disclosure: Own Salares Lithium

See also:
Salares Lithium project-full speed ahead
Will SQM swallow Junior lithium miner?
Canadian juniors sitting on huge lithium deposits!

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Lithium mining project proceeding full speed in conjunction with developments in Lithium Batteries. for electric vehicles.

Image by Ben Cooper via Flickr

News Release

Salares Lithium Provides Project Update Including Execution of a Drill Contract

Vancouver, BC -- June 04, 2010 -- (TSXV: LIT). Salares Lithium Inc. (the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on the Salares 7 project in Region III, Chile (the "Project").

Project Update

The Company is pleased to report that it has signed a 3,000 metre diamond drill contract with Terraservices of Santiago, Chile. The program is designed to test selected parts of the interpreted brine bearing horizon (reservoir rock) at the Salar de la Isla, a brine lake 26km long and on average 6km wide. The depth of the known interpreted brine bearing horizon is less than 300 metres. Aquaconsult of Santiago, Chile, a hydrological consulting firm, will assist the Company and Terraservices with the drill program protocol and sampling.

Drilling will begin once the base camp near to the Salar de la Isla is completed. P.K. Mendies of Santiago, Chile, has been contracted to construct and be responsible for the 25-30 person winter camp. Completion of the camp was delayed as a result of unusually heavy snowfall in the last two weeks which did not allow for the delivery of materials and winterized containers.

As a result of a break in the snowfall and as of yesterday, our local Chilean partners have recovered their equipment in the area and have now begun clearing the road of snow and finalizing access to the camp. Once access has been restored, the camp will be completed and the drill program initiated.

"While we are all frustrated by the weather delay, management is determined to advance the exploration program as fast as is safely possible. Both the General Manager (Chile) and the V.P. Exploration will be onsite early next week to oversee the camp construction and get the drilling phase initiated immediately thereafter", commented Todd Hilditch, CEO.

Salares Lithium Inc.

Salares Lithium Inc. is a lithium explorer in Chile that controls the 'Salares 7' lithium project made up of seven salares (brine lakes that are prospective for sub-surface lithium and potassium) and the surrounding concessions in Region III, Chile. Five of the seven salares are clustered within 155 kilometres and are 100% owned by the Company and its Chilean partner.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Todd Hilditch
President and CEO
Tel: (604) 443-3831

For contact information please visit www.salareslithium.com

See Also:  
SQM could swallow Junior in Chile Lithium play
Lithium juniors sitting on huge deposits.
Theaureport.com

Disclosure: own Salares Lithium. Acquiring more.

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News Release - Carbon Sciences Files Landmark Patent Application for Breakthrough CO2-Based Gas-to-Liquids Fuel Technology !

(News release from CABN)

Company’s Technology Poised to help Eliminate World’s Petroleum Dependency by Producing Gasoline from a Combination of Natural Gas and Carbon Dioxide

Santa Barbara, CA - June 7, 2010 - Carbon Sciences, Inc. (CABN), the developer of a breakthrough technology to transform greenhouse gases into gasoline and other portable fuels, today announced the filing of the first of a series of patent applications for its highly scalable clean-tech CO2 based Gas to Liquids (GTL) fuel technology for transforming a combination of natural gas and carbon dioxide (CO2) directly into gasoline.

This first patent application discloses the design and manufacturing of a novel chemical catalyst that converts methane gas and carbon dioxide gas (CO2) directly into gasoline. These greenhouse gases can be sourced from natural gas fields or human made coal-fired power plants, landfill gas, municipal waste, and even algae.

“This heralds a new era for Carbon Sciences and means that our plan for delivering a market-ready technology could be delivered as soon as next year,” said Byron Elton, CEO of Carbon Sciences. “The ongoing tragic events involving BP’s unchecked flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico further underscores the urgent need to reduce and eliminate our addiction to petroleum, foreign and domestic. Carbon Sciences’ breakthrough technology takes us closer to a world without petroleum by essentially transforming pollution into energy.”

Today’s announcement is related to the most important module of the company’s previously announced end-to-end CO2 to fuel system that recycles raw CO2 flue emissions from carbon emitters like coal-fired power plants directly into gasoline and other portable fuels. The new module under development is designed to be a standalone system to substantially shorten the timeline to commercialization, and reduce the overall systems and operating costs and produce a fuel that can be used in the existing infrastructure, supply chain and vehicles.

Dr. Naveed Aslam, the company’s Chief Technology Officer, commented, “We are very excited about the standalone commercialization of our CO2-GTL Gasoline module. This system will provide a sizable part of the energy industry with an immediate clean-tech solution for the energy and climate challenges we face. Unlike other technologies, such as those for algae biofuels, that may require decades for commercial deployment, our plan for delivering a market-ready technology may be available as soon as early next year. Within a short period of time, we believe that the world can stop drilling for oil and start converting natural gas and greenhouse gases to gasoline.”

Mr. Elton added, “The clear and short path to commercialization with this new CO2 based gas to liquids technology makes it our singular focus for the next twelve to eighteen months. The company’s website has been updated to reflect this strategy and focus.”

To imagine a world without petroleum and learn more about Carbon Sciences’ breakthrough technology, please visit www.carbonsciences.com.

About Carbon Sciences, Inc.

Carbon Sciences, Inc. is developing a breakthrough CO2 based gas-to-liquids technology to transform greenhouse gases into liquid portable fuels, such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Innovating at the forefront of chemical engineering, we are developing highly scalable clean-tech processes to produce liquid fuels from naturally occurring or human-made greenhouse gas emissions. From sources such as natural gas fields, refinery flare gas, landfill gas, municipal waste, algae and other biomass, there is an abundant supply of inexpensive feedstock available to produce large and sustainable quantities of liquid fuel to replace petroleum for global consumption, thereby eliminating our dependence on petroleum. To learn more about the Company, please visit our website at carbonsciences.com.

Disclosure: own CABN  - a speculative penny stock. 

Editors note: Carbon Sciences Inc (CABN-OTC) is developing a new breed of "Nano-Reactor" that should revolutionize the nascent carbon capture and conversion industry allowing for the commercialization of converting carbon emissions (from coal and oil fired industries and from natural gas ie: from landfills) directly into usable gasoline, "without" using high energy heat.


The company has already demonstrated it's technology works, and expects to have a working reactor by the end of Q3 2010. The sector is now referred to as Gas to Liquids or "GTL" and it is growing. The company's president, Byron Elton, was recently interviewed by Ally Velchie on CNN Business and that interview can be found at: http://www.carbonsciences.com/01/youtubeplayer.html

Will SQM swallow nearby junior to increase it's Lithium reserves?

Image by Argonne National Laboratory via Flickr

"The future of American motoring will be--at least in part--battery-powered. It's becoming increasingly clear that the lithium-ion pack is what will get us there. Almost every top-tier car maker has announced plans to use the technology"                Popular Mechanics

Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. (NYSE-SQM)

SQM is the largest producer of Lithium carbonate in the world today. It's operations are in the country of Chile and it's HQ is in Santiago, Chile.

The Lithium that SQM produces is really a by product of it's Potassium (Potash) production. However, as lithium gains more and more investor interest, and more to the point, more interest from auto manufacturers and wireless providers, SQM may be looking to expand this part of it's business.

Recently SQM over staked a claim on one of the Salars owned by Canadian Junior, Salares Lithium (LIT-V)

Salares responded by changing it's status from Exploration to Exploitation of the Salar (salt lake) in question.  Salares owns 7 Salars in the Atacama region of Chile not far from where SQM (and other majors) operate.

They own 5 of those Salars outright (they bought them instead of staking the claim, (thereby owning 100% of the resource). Their "Salares 7 project"  is arguably, one of the largest Lithium deposits in country, and although they are a junior (still trading under $1) their lithium foot print is very large.

Institutional investors have taken note (and positions) because of the tremendous interest in Lithium based battery technology for the wireless market, wind and solar markets, and in particular, for the Hybrid electric (PHEV) and pure Electric (EV) vehicle markets which are now the hot topic at every major auto manufacturer including Chev (volt) to Nissan (leaf) and BYD, Honda, Ford, Chrysler, Tesla, and others.

It is hard to tell exactly what SQM is up to. It may be that they did not know they were staking property belonging to LIT or, more likely, they did, and this is the first move by SQM to corner much of the future lithium market by soaking up a junior with a large lithium footprint of it's own.

No matter how you cut it, if SQM is that interested in property controlled by Salares Lithium, it may well be interested in acquiring LIT or some portion of it. Because of this new information, we bought more LIT today.

Disclosure: own Salares Lithium (LIT-V) currently trading at .60 per share.


 Happy investing!

See also:
Juniors sitting on huge lithium deposits.
Expert opinions

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Pigs really do get slaughtered! So don't be one!

"Bulls make money, bears make money, pigs get slaughtered"
Jim Cramer - Mad Money


Yes, Jim Cramer can drive you nuts with his ranting and raving about stocks and investing. Sometimes he is right, sometimes he is wrong (just like the rest of us) but of all of his rantings, I sure like the quote "Bulls make money, bears make money, pigs get slaughtered". Jim drives home this simple thought every night on his CNBC show, Mad Money.


Jim's style can grate on serious investors and newbies alike, but one thing is for sure, he does try to enlighten the small retail investor and this quote is far and away, one of the best pieces of advice he gives every single night to his viewers. If you don't listen to this golden piece of advice, you stand to lose your shirt, and more.

If your investment strategy is to throw money on hot stocks and hope for a home run, then you should change the game. You are better suited to the game of craps at the local Casino. With that attitude, you may actually do better at the Casino, than in the market.

Economic forecasts are never certain. If you put three economists in the same room, you will end up with three entirely different opinions of where the economy, and by extension, the market is headed. Don't invest in stocks because of an economic forecast! Invest only when you have done your own home work on an individual stock, it's market niche, it's earnings/potential, it's management, it's trading range, and analysts opinions. (Actually we like stocks that are under the radar of analysts, but is for another post).

The bottom for traders is this!  If you have a stock that is up say 20% to 30% and you don't take at least "some" profit, then consider yourself a pig, and expect to get slaughtered. You don't have to sell because a stock is up, but taking "some" money off the table when you are up is simply a fact of good trading.

If as opposed to "trading" you consider yourself a long term investor and you are not concerned with short to medium term profits, you may still wish to "take some off the table". It just make sense because, as you've heard many times, "a bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush"!

And Pigs can't fly! but of course, you already know that!

Good investing-   HP


PS: and by the way, don't forget to pay down some debt this year. A great investment is not to owe more money than you have. You don't want that burden in retirement, especially in this environment. 

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