Mad Money Machine

Happy New Year: Some Announcements

I have some announcements for you:

1. YOU can be a part of the 2007 Portfolio Smackdown. Get an account at the MarketWatch Virtual Stock Exchange (VSE) and take your pretend $100,000 and see if you can beat the IFA Indexfolio(tm) 100>. Try to pick stocks Cramer-style or any style you wish to see if active investing beats passive investing. Or, pick a Set-It-And-Forget-It portfolio at the beginning and see if your portfolio gets a better return in 2007. Sign up now, it is free right here:
http://vse.marketwatch.com/Game/StartViewGame.aspx?id=MadMoneyMachine.com
The trading starts January 2nd (but of course the markets are closed), so sign up and get started right away! But can start at any time.

2. New Discussion Forums! I have set up a new discussion Forum area at MadMoneyMachine.com/forums. Or you may click the “Forums” tab at the top of any page to get there. This is now the place to discuss things. I have temporarily closed the ability to comment on web postings. I’m not really sure if this is the right thing to do yet or not. I can always turn back on the ability to comment, but forums are so much more interactive and usable. At least that is my thinking. What we lose is the ability to directly tie your comments to web postings. And that is something I may reconsider. It is also a pain in the butt that you have to register again for the forums… welcome to unintegrated web applications… but I appreciate your effort and hope to see you there.

At the moment I have just two public forums: one is for show-related comments and the other is for everything else. Have you ever heard the phrase, “Paving the sidewalks?” This refers to the story of a college facilities manager that decided not to put in sidewalks in the new school’s campus and instead watch and wait for the paths to be worn into the grass. Then he would go back and pave a sidewalk over those paths. That’s what I’ll do with the forums. Watch and see what happens.

3. Answer the quick survey question at the right: Which is the best way to invest, carefully picking stocks, buy and hold in index funds, or a mix of these two? No obligation required to vote. I’ll discuss the results in show 50.

4. Please Digg the MMM. The social-news website Digg.com has a new podcasts page. Would you please Digg the MMM and thereby increase it’s ranking? You will need to have an account at digg.com, but it is worth it.

5. Please vote for MMM at PodcastAlley. Thanks.

6. We have 24 members of the MMM Board of Directors. These folks will play in a special private VSE game to pick stocks Cramer-style and see if people under the influence of Cramer can beat the IFA Indexfolio 100. I’ll regularly update the results on the show and at MadMoneyMachine.com/portfolios.

7. Show MMM-049 will come out this Wednesday evening. Check your iTunes subscription or come back here to get it. Whew, three weeks since the last show. I have lots and lots of things to talk about!

Have a happy and especially prosperous New Year!