I did something a bit cheeky last week. I wrote a post titled The Secret to Trading Success that was intended to trigger a response, to play on the common desire of so many new traders to find that secret method sure to guarantee trading profits.

The response was much greater than I'd ever expected. Thanks to StumbleUpon, that one post became, in just a week, the single most popular one my trading education blog has had in its two years of active authoring. Amazing.

April was a good month on many levels. It was the second anniversary of The Essentials of Trading being published. It was also a the anniversary of my return to professional market analysis and my first year as a stock analyst. Good stuff all around.

Today my new trading blog went live: www.RhodyTrader.com.

This one’s different from www.TheEssentialsOfTrading.com. While Essentials have a 100% focus on trader education, trading information, and things like that, the RhodyTrader blog is much more of a personal one. It’s a place where I post my thoughts on the market, do a little analysis, talk about my own trading, and stuff of that nature.

If you’re into trading, stop by and let me know what you think. I’m always open to feedback.

Here are the posts on my Essentials of Trading site that were most popular based on views and comments:

1. Book Review: How I Made $2,000,000 In The Stock Market
2. Bear Stearns and Enron - Learn the Lessons of Diversification
3. Good, Free Trading Resources
4. The Difference Between Trading and Investing
5. Commodities Trading: Is it Worth Exploring?
6. Opportunities and Training at Prop Trading Firms
7. Why Was the Stock Market Closed for Good Friday?
8. Assessing Your Trading Expectations for Your Trading Plan
9. Which Forex Pair Should I Start Trading?
10. The Required Elements for Your Trading Plan

Here are the 10 most posts to my trading education blog in February which were most popular:

1. Sometimes You Need to Trade Scared
2. Take the Trading Long View
3. Book Review: Way of the Turtle
4. Trading Education and Trader Development - What You Need to Think About
5. Am I Ready to Trade Live?
6. Tight Stops Make Me Nervous
7. Should I Use Price Targets in My Trading?
8. Is it still feasible to trade forex?
9. The Superbowl Indicator
10. Help Me Trade Forex With Candles!

Think you can beat the S&P 500? If so, you'll want to check out a new site I came across - UpDown. I signed up because I'm interested in the basic experiment the site is founded upon. The owners are looking to use it as a way to generate a strategy to run a hedge fund. They think that by modelling the trades done by members who have proven themselves consistently able to beat the S&P 500, then the fund would do the same.

I also see UpDown as a place where I can test out different strategy ideas and interact with market participants.

Oh, and members can make money - real money, not virtual money. How? By beating the market and/or by providing quality analysis of stocks to the community. Got your attention now? :-)

If you haven't been by to see my new look site, give it a visit and let me know what you think. Be kind, though. It's a work in progress. :-)

www.TheEssentialsOfTrading.com

I'm celebrating my anniversary one week from today. No, not a wedding anniversary! This month represents one year since The Essentials of Trading was released by my publisher, Wiley. It also marks the anniversary of the book making Amazon.com's Top Seller list, which was pretty cool. :-)

Anyway, I'm celebrating the anniversary in grand fashion, and you get to benefit. I've brought some of my friends and partners together to provide a collection of really cool giveaway stuff. On top of that I'm giving away signed copies of the book, and also copies of my trading course. And that's not all.

Check out the details at: www.theessentialsoftrading.com/anniversary

Things are rolling with my anniversary celebration to mark one year since the release of The Essentials of Trading. My friends and partners are putting together gift packages to giveaway to everyone who takes part. I've also go some special extras tossed in as well. You should definitely check it all out: www.theessentialsoftrading.com/anniversary