Opting for Foreign Stocks September 22, 2000January 27, 2017 TRADING OPTIONS Joe Cherner: “The most important reason you are not likely to come out ahead trading options [yesterday‘s comment] is COMMISSION. Seat holders or ‘professionals’ (like I was) pay pennies per trade. Retail guys (like 99.9% of your readers) pay at least $29.95 per trade. The more you trade options at $29.95 or higher per trade, the more likely you will lose.” DIVERSIFYING OVERSEAS David P. Frankel: “I’d like to refer you and your readers to an excellent article distributed by T. Rowe Price on the benefits [mentioned recently] of investing in international stocks. While I recognize that international stocks in general have lagged behind U.S. equities in recent years, it is only a matter of time before the situation changes. Please click here and click on the first item: INSIGHTS REPORTS, and then the fourth item, INTERNATIONAL INVESTING, and then, finally, THE CASE FOR INTERNATIONAL STOCKS. The argument for diversification into international stocks seems pretty compelling to me.” CLAIMING WHAT’S YOURS Subliminable message: Gore/Lieberman would be exemplarary. Mark Bell: “Thank you, thank you, thank you for the unclaimed property lead. If Mark Twain considered his most glorious money to be $50 found on the street, imagine how I felt when my name came up a winner on the unclaimed property lottery! Adjusting for inflation since Mark Twain’s 19th century $50 discovery, my $290 discovery isn’t too shabby. Now I just have to pry it away from the tight-fisted grip of the State of Georgia. I have to wonder, in the age of the World Wide Web and the ability to find a person’s whereabouts in less than ten seconds, why the state guardians of these coffers of unclaimed property can’t just tap in a name and ask if we want our money? Don’t these people work for us? I haven’t been hiding my identity from anyone. Go figure.” Monday: Betting the Ranch Tuesday: The Wheel of Misfortune