I will be uploading a great 5-part series this week based on items that are on my Christmas wish list.

It’s that time of year (Thanksgiving) when my family pulls names from a hat and then must buy a gift or gifts for the person they draw. We all add gadgets, toys, dreams and/or necessities to a large wish list that gets mailed back and forth prior to the turkey dinner.

So what’s on my wish list this year? Yes, they are all stock related for the purpose of this blog!

I am going to start big and dream a little bit in Part I

Here’s what to look for in the coming week:

Part I: A BRAND new 2008 Lexus LS (How about that) from Toyota Motor Corp. (TM)

Part II: I need a Garmin (GRMN) for my Lexus!

Part III: A New Suit from The Men’s Warehouse (MW)

Part IV: An iTouch from Apple (AAPL)

Part V: A Blackberry Pearl from Research in Motion (RIMM)
Bonus Part V.1: I use the Verizon Wireless (VZ) Network

The arrival of the Thanksgiving holiday brings the one year anniversary of an article I wrote that was published in the magazine: The Trader’s Journal.

The article explains the basis of position sizing and expectancy and how poker has made me a better trader.

By playing poker, I have cemented my understanding of how people act, how to play the right odds, how to develop expectancies based on the cards I am dealt and how to position my trades properly. Watching these techniques and rules work within a short period of time really drove home the importance of a system that follows the proven rules.

Trading can be a long, tedious and impatient road to travel but following the rules and employing proper position sizing and expectancy calculations will almost guarantee success if the rest of you system does it’s job.

If your system is broke, find one that works and understand that you won’t go broke by properly placing your trades or bets and understanding how much you can and will win from each trade and/or bet.

How the Poker Craze can Help you Trade

An American Hedge Fund: How I Made $2 Million as a Stock Operator & Created a Hedge Fund
by Timothy Sykes

“…an excellent tell-all story about the truth of setting up, starting and running a Hedge Fund from scratch. A highly entertaining read that should help educate aspiring fund mangers and give them much need guidance to tackle the risks of playing and surviving Wall Street’s fierce game” - Chris Perruna

In addition to the quote I provided for Tim’s blog, I felt the book was highly entertaining and a great read. It flowed and I easily finished it in two sittings and was always eager to start another chapter. I learned several things by reading the book as Tim helped me confirm even further that I probably don’t want to trade as a small fund manager on Wall Street.

I first learned about Tim while watching Wall Street Warriors on the HD channel MOJO. The show was good enough to catch my attention enough to watch the entire series and really get into the stories of each character. Tim went on to write this book and was kind enough to send me an advance copy last summer.

Too many books are boring or lack the meat to grab my attention for 200 or more pages. Tim did a great job at telling his story and keeping the reader interested from chapter to chapter.

An American Hedge Fund is an autobiography about Tim’s venture of trading throughout college and then ultimately forming his own hedge fund after he graduated. He gets into great detail of trading during his college years and then details his experiences within the dark halls and exclusive clubs of the Wall Street money game.

I recommend the book to anyone interested in starting their own private hedge fund or to anyone that would like to hear the story of a college kid that turned $12,415 into $1.65 million in three to four short years. (I can’t say I have made that much to date)

I do have a few cons about the book
(for the readers of this specific, trend trading blog):
Tim was predominately a short trader in college and within his fund. He didn’t exclusively trade short but that was his bread and butter. I have traded short and have covered the topic several times on this blog but my bread and butter are trends on the long side.

Tim focused on trading small penny stocks, which I honestly feel are crap, but that is just my opinion. Regardless of what Tim traded, he was successful and that is the most important moral of the story.

Understand what he was trading and how he did it. I believe Tim is focusing more on money management and a psychological approach as he tries to repeat the feat in his latest endeavor. If I had one suggestion, I would tell Tim to forget about the $12,000 start and get properly capitalized and trade using sound position sizing and expectancy tactics:

TIM – Transparent Investment Management

I’m going back to my Bar Mitzvah Gift Money roots of $12,415 and opening an account with a discount online broker, intent on repeating my feat of turning this small sum into $1.65 million. This time around, my goals are not solely monetary, but to show everyone the process, the successes and failures and the hard work that goes into accomplishing such a feat.

Each night, I will post all my thoughts, investment ideas and trade details on my website TimothySykes.com. This won’t be some highly technical trading talk BS and it certainly won’t be boring - c’mon you know me better than that!

Final Word:
I do recommend the book to anyone that enjoys stories about Wall Street and trading. I can’t honestly say it is the next Reminiscences of a Stock Operator but it is much better than some of the other trash I see on the shelves of Barnes and Noble or Amazon.

I wish Tim the best of success during his current journey of duplicating his trading success from 1999-2002. Please take the time to visit his latest blog and follow along with the success of TIM:
TimothySykes.com

VISA, the largest U.S. credit card network said it is looking to raise $1o billion in an initial public offering, according to a registration statement with the SEC.

They plan to take a portion of the IPO proceeds to pay settlements or judgments related to litigation settlements. For example, VISA agreed to pay American Express up to $2.07 billion to settle a lawsuit alleging the company illegally stifled competition.

I am excited for the VISA IPO along with many investors after the success of Mastercard (MA). I entered Mastercard after its first major run but still managed to make a handsome profit with my buy above $107. The stock currently trades at $186.77 and recently broke out a cup with handle base above the pivot point of $169.26.

Why do I like VISA’s potential?

• $1o Billion would represent the second largest IPO ever!
• Revenues are expected to grow steadily as consumers continue to use their cards
• VISA processed 44 billion transactions totaling $3.2 trillion in 2006 (Mastercard processed 23.4 billion transactions totaling $1.9 trillion)
• VISA has made $771 million on $3.7 billion in revenue during the first nine months of 2007
• VISA makes their money from the fees it charges to card users and merchants using its network
• Mastercard is half the size of VISA and is up 5-fold from its IPO

BEST OF ALL:

• Because it acts as an intermediary, Visa doesn’t sustain losses when consumers don’t repay the debts run up on credit cards bearing its brand. Those liabilities instead fall to the banks that issue the cards and set the terms of repayment
• Most of Visa’s major stockholders are banks. They include: J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., which owns 23.3 percent of the company’s Class B Stock; Bank of America Corp., 11.5 percent; National City Corp., 8 percent; Citigroup Inc., 5.5 percent; U.S. Bancorp, 5.1 percent; and Wells Fargo & Co., 5.1 percent.

NO RISK for VISA; the banks are responsible for the cardholders that don’t pay their bills. What could be better than that? Tell me!

I received this letter from the CEO of OptionsXpress after the recent breakdown and bankruptcy talk surrounding E*Trade (ETFC). This is why I love the company and have remained a member since its debut in 2001 (it actually debuted in December 2000):

You may have heard about the recent turmoil concerning one of the large online brokers. I want to let you know that optionsXpress is not at risk of the same market-related issues. Our company does not invest in mortgages or mortgage-related securities and your funds are in good hands.

If you are concerned about accounts you may have at other brokerage firms, I invite you to open another account here at optionsXpress. optionsXpress has SIPC and excess SIPC coverage, giving your account additional protection beyond SIPC’s limits.

We’ll pay the Account Transfer fees charged by the brokerage.

If you have any questions regarding how to transfer your account to optionsXpress or anything else we can help you with, please send us an email, talk to us via live chat, or call us at 1-888-280-8020.

Regards,
Ned Bennett
CEO, optionsXpress Inc.

optionsXpress (OXPS) is a pioneer in online options trading, headed by a unique management team with over 30 years combined experience in the options marketplace. David Kalt, James Gray and Ned Bennett came together in late 1999 with a shared vision to build a better online brokerage for the retail option investors.

Their vision became a reality when www.optionsXpress.com launched in December 2000. Four years later, the three took the company public (NASDAQ: OXPS) to continue building a better brokerage, year after year.

Our Goal
To deliver more value for our clients by:

• Educating customers about options trading and using the optionsXpress award-winning platform
• Helping them to Evaluate options using our state-of-the-art proprietary tools, and
• Executing their trading decisions quickly and accurately at a reasonable price.

The address is:
311 W. Monroe Street, Suite 1000
Chicago, Illinois 60606
Tel: (312) 630-3300 | (888) 280-8020
Fax: (312) 629-5256

I actually owned and followed the stock back in 2005 but it didn’t work out the way I anticipated: