Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Please read my terms of service, I assume you have read it in full...

Terms of use for Big T on the internet:

It is assumed that any reader of any post of mine on the internet has read these terms of use before any other post is ever read.

One should never invest/trade in securities, options, or futures with funds that are not expendable. You should be prepared to lose some part of or all of your original investment (or more on shorting stocks/the market because of margin calls) when playing the stock market. Trade only with funds you can afford to lose!

I write about stocks and other investments. I am not a registered investment adviser and I will not and cannot give personalized investment advice. If you wish for personalized investment advice, please consult with someone who is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP). These individuals are qualified to help you; also, find one to whom you pay an hourly fee, to ensure that your adviser has no conflicts of interest. To find a CFP near you, visit the CFP Board’s website: http://www.cfp.net/search/

When I write about a stock that I beneficially own, I will attempt to disclose that fact at the end of an article in which I mention that stock, unless I own the stock in a hedge fund, mutual account, managed account or other account that I do not control. Because this is a day-trading blog I may close or re-open a position in a stock without timely notification of the readers of this blog.

This blog is for informational purposes only and you should not consider anything I write to be investment advice.

I have never been sanctioned for violations of securities laws, and I have never been barred from the securities industry or convicted of any felony or misdemeanor. However, I make no guarantees about the accuracy of my statements and I will not necessarily update statements that later turn out to be false. Because I aim for accuracy, I encourage anyone who finds errors to use the contact form to point them out to me.

I provide the material on this site for informational purposes only. No mention of a particular security constitutes a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold that or any other security, nor does it mean that any particular security, portfolio of securities, transaction or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. I cannot and do not assess, verify or guarantee the adequacy, accuracy or completeness of any information, the suitability or profitability of any particular investment or methodology, or the potential value of any investment or informational source. Site users bear sole responsibility for their own investment research and decisions. Anything written on this website is solely the opinion of the author unless it is clearly and expressly stated as fact.

Category labels are not necessarily correct descriptions of articles in those categories.

Twitter

I post comments about stocks on Twitter and those comments may appear on my blog in a sidebar. My disclosure policy and trading policy does not apply to my posts on Twitter or anywhere else on the internet (such as Motley Fool CAPS and Yahoo! Finance message boards), only my blog itself. The only disclosure policy I will follow when making posts on Twitter or websites other than this blog is that I will use best efforts to disclose when I hold a position in a stock.

I will occasionally tweet about stocks I trade. My tweets will often be delayed and thus attempting to trade based on my tweets will likely lead to losses. I discourage anyone from making trades based on my tweets. My tweets are not recommendations to buy or sell a stock. They are for informational and educational purposes only to give my readers a feel for how I trade and to convey my opinion on stocks about which I may write.

Taxes

I may occasionally write about tax issues for traders. I have no training in tax law (or any kind of law) and nothing I say or saw is to be construed as tax, financial, or legal advice. Some traders recommend The Tax Guide for Traders by Robert Green. I have not read the book and have not received any financial compensation for mentioning the author or work here.

Recommendations and Affiliates

I only recommend products or services that I believe are useful. For some products or services I recommend I am an affiliate and receive a percentage commission based on product / service sales from those clicking my affiliate links. Every product for which I am an affiliate I am also a happy customer and I am an affiliate because I like the service / product.

Posts about penny stocking firms or promoters

Anything I write is assumed to be my opinion only, and not to be construed as factual unless it is undisputed or is otherwise public knowledge. I may criticize a company or promoter over the internet but these observations are strictly anecdotal and personal from my experience. These are not to be taken as libel or defamation of character as my views are not based on fact, but only my interpretation of their activities, subject to fair dispute by the object of the postings. If anything I write is found to be inaccurate, and I am notified of this by any qualified involved party, I will gladly post a retraction and apology as soon as possible.

Comment Policy

Ownership of and responsibility of the comments remains with those who post the comments. I am not responsible for the statements of those who leave comments. I reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason whatsoever, including but not limited to the reasons that the comment(s) in question are spam, defamation or obscene.

Privacy Policy

I use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit this website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, visit this URL:
http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html

* Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on this site.
* Google’s use of the DART cookie enables it and its partners to serve ads to my users based on their visit to my sites and/or other sites on the Internet.
* Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy. See this page for details: http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html

Email Privacy Policy

Users’ email addresses will never be sold to anyone, ever, whether given to me by signing up for my email list or by leaving a comment.

Privacy Limitations

The only personal information I currently collect consists of email addresses, IP addresses, and information related to user comments. I may disclose users’ email addresses, IP addresses, comments, or any other information regarding users, pursuant to subpoenas, court orders, or other requests (including criminal and civil matters) if I have a good faith belief that the response is required by law. This may include respecting requests from jurisdictions outside of the United States where I have a good faith belief that the response is required by law under the local laws in that jurisdiction, apply to users from that jurisdiction, and are consistent with generally accepted international standards. I may also share information when I have a good faith belief it is necessary to prevent fraud or other illegal activity, to prevent imminent bodily harm, or to comply with these Terms of Use. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, courts or other government entities.

The above terms of service can and will be updated at any time a real change occurs requiring disclosure or disclaimers in the opinion of yours truly.