Friend of Steve, allow me to introduce you to...

our new blog.

This is the first post to our new "private" blog, intended just for friends and family. If you are receiving this email, it's because I count you as one of my trusted friends or family! BTW, I imported all the old posts from the public blog to the new private blog, so everything is in one place for your easy reference.

Over the next few days I will be winding down the public blog as I wrap up the live test and post my analysis of the system's performance. I will also post the analysis here so that you don't miss anything. The public blog will then remain up as a track record for the system's performance, but no new trades will be posted there. This is to minimize the possibility that somebody might reverse engineer the system, which could degrade its future performance.

Each weekend I will post the next week's holdings here on the new private blog. Please bookmark the new website, FOSteve.blogspot.com. Out of consideration for our small group of investors, please do not re-distribute the new private blog's URL.

Some of you have asked me to supervise the management of various portfolios. I believe it is important to first become licensed as an investment adviser before taking on the management of other people's hard earned money. You may be aware that I recently passed the Unified Investment Adviser Law Exam, FINRA Series 65. I have been told that this exam has the lowest passing rate of any the FINRA law exams. Believe me, it was no cake-walk! Passing the law exam is a major step towards my goal of gaining a license, which I expect to be complete within a few weeks.

I will then be licensed as a "boutique" Registered Investment Advisor, with the aim of helping a small number of people who are close to me and share common goals. For the next few years this will continue to be a weekend endeavor as my full-time career in the software industry remains most important to me. Fortunately, the system I developed accommodates my work schedule since 1) all trades can be entered over the weekend, 2) it is hedged to minimize systemic market risk and 3) does not require close supervision during the week. I guess you could say it is designed to be a stress free approach to profitable investing. Works for me!

This is a pursuit born out of my passion for investing and trading the markets. I am fortunate that my software and systems background has equipped me to develop a unique approach to growing our portfolios while minimizing time and stress. So far, the performance of the system that I developed in 2003-06 has held up very well in 2007-present, as shown in the live test. It is gratifying that the performance over this period also compares extremely well with the top tier of professionally managed hedge funds.

While past performance is no guarantee of future returns (disclaimer!), it is my hope and desire that whatever skills and experience I have gained will also help my friends and family to achieve their financial goals. Thanks so much for your counsel and suggestions as we continue on this journey.

Best Regards,
Steve