The Equidata Investor

The publisher spent 28 years in the world of Wall Street as a trader. After his registration in 1982 as an Investment Advisor, he became the technical analyst and chartist for this publication. He is now the Vice President of Research for the company.

This publication, as ever, is dedicated to the small investor and specializes in keeping them informed of the changing global and economic environment which will affect their investment decisions. The tragic events of September 11, 2001 should forever remind us of the fragile peace we enjoy in America. Our mission is simply to provide unbiased news, data and financial information necessary to assure a level playing field in investing in the stock market.

The Equidata Investor is a stock market and investment publication issued and mailed on the first day of each quarter. The publication is dedicated to the small investor but we welcome Venture Capitalists, and savvy professional traders.

Organized in 1974 and registered in 1982, Equidata researches stocks traded on the major and smaller exchanges. We specialize in uncovering those well managed companies engaged in Biotech research,Information Technology, Wireless Communications, Precious Metals and Oil and Gas Exploration.

Disclaimer: Neither Equidata1, Equidata of VA, the Equidata Investor, their officers or their authors endorse or take any responsibility for services, products and or content advertised on any banner, button or web page linked to their site. Neither Equidata1's officers, authors and research staff, accept fees or commissions from companies whose stocks they recommend.

Statements, graphics, data and statistics provided in the Equidata Investor web pages and newsletters have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable but are not guaranteed to it's accuracy or completeness. References to any particular security does not constitute an offer to buy or sell the security but is merely a recommendation based on the analysis of the author. Accordingly, neither Equidata1, The Equidata Investor, the author, the publisher nor any of their heirs take responsibilities for any errors, omissions or losses from any action taken based on the material or recommendations contained therein.

Past performance is no guarantee of future successes in our stock or market calls. We urge all readers of our publications to ultimately use their own judgment in making BUY and SELL decisions on the stocks analyzed in The Equidata Investor, after reading the information on the web sites of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) at http://www.sec.gov or the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) at http://www.nasd.com.

All public filings by companies can be reviewed at the SEC's EDGAR page.

With all the talk about Derivatives, Mutual Funds, Options, Puts and Calls abounding, we think a little primer for the wary small investor is in order.

Here are a few simple rules to follow in order to keep your sanity and guard against losing your shirt in the markets. Although there are dozens of investment strategies that the average individual small investor need not know about, here are some of the least important: commodities, limited partnerships, derivatives and any acronyms which sound like computer language including: TIGRS, M-CATS, STRIPS, UIT's, REITs' , IPO's and REMICs, also short selling, call writing and futures trading.

If you don't know what these mean, not to worry, you don't have to know to be a successful investor on Wall Street. These are legitimate investment strategies, created for the professionals who can devote full time to their intricacies.

For the average investor however, these strategies are just to complex and tricky. You could read a dozen books, watch all the cable TV. shows, get an MBA from Harvard and you still wouldn't know enough to matter.

COMMODITIES

Anything that eats or grows should be avoided. These are future contracts to buy or sell certain amounts of wheat, pork bellies, oats, or other such commodities within a certain period of time. Not that these can't be good investment vehicles but they require an enormous amount of time to research and they are very complex when trying to invest in them and no matter what you hear about people making a killing in commodities futures, over 70% of investors in commodities lose their shirt. more