You MUST learn to trade options if you want to survive and prosper in 2009

Millions of people around the world have seen their retirement dreams crushed as a result of the bear market. Most of those people trusted a broker or financial advisor to help them build a diversified portfolio that would help them weather any market condition and still see their money grow over time. They did everything right, following the textbook of the traditional investment community.

Those people are now looking back at the past 10-12 years and seeing that they have made nothing! That's right, nothing. Call it the decade of nothing. I don't care how well diversified you were over the past 10 years, if you owned stocks and did nothing, you've lost 10 years of potential compounding of your investments. Most people I talk to would have done better had they stuck their money in long-term CD's or even their passbook savings account at the local bank.

Now as they near retirement, they are coming to grips with the fact that they don't have enough money in their nest egg to send to work to generate the income they need to sustain the current lifestyle they live now in retirement. Retirement just got pushed way back for most, or eliminated altogether.

Buy and hold works if you've got enough years to make up for the bad ones you're most certainly going to experience over your lifetime of investing, but if the bad years come right before you're ready to retire, you're hosed.

It's my opinion that 95% of investors fall into this category. They ALWAYS lose money when the market is flat or down. Very few investors make money when stocks are not going up. Which group are you in? What are you going to do about it? Doing nothing may be the biggest mistake of all.

It's also my opinion that the majority of investors in the 5% group that actually made some money in the past year used options to protect themselves and profit when stocks were flat and down. The biggest weakness most investors have, and ALL traditioinal brokers and financial advisors have, is that they are afraid to sell anything. So they hold on to everything and watch it decline substatially and deal with the anxiety and stress that comes with watching your life savings go up in smoke.

There are two things that every investor needs to do immediately if they want to survive and prosper in 2009 and beyond. Things are tough right now and I expect them to get much worse before they get better.

First, you've got to stop losing money when the market tanks. If you've ever had a catstrophic investment, one that lost 40, 50, 60, 80 or even 100% of it's value, I've got three words for you, "Shame on you!" Make it your New Years resolution to never have a catastrophic investment again. It's simple to do, just use stop loss orders and make sure you put in them the moment you make any new investment. My rule is never lose more than 10% of the money I put into any new stock investment and 50% of any new option investment.

Use automated orders to eliminate emotions and stick to your stop loss levels. NEVER lower a stop loss. If you get stopped out of an investment and it begins to come back, just buy it back. Commissions are cheap, staying on the wrong side of a stock or the market is expensive.

The second thing is learn a few strategies that actually can make a profit if a stock is flat or down. Other than shorting stock, the majority of these strategies involve the use of options. The benefits of options trading has never been more apparent.

You can use options to create a limited risk and unlimited reward trade on virtually any stock. Using this basic strategy, you can create trades to profit in both rising and falling markets. Millions of investors are discovering the power and benefit of options trading as evidenced by the explosion of option trading volumes in recent years. There is a reason options trading is exploding, because they can give you an edge to profit in any type of market conditions.

Options are given a bad name by many as being too risky, but in reality there are a number of option strategies that are less risky than owning a stock or mutual fund. Those false rumor are simply used by financial professionals who don't understand options and don't want to accept the liabilty of having their customers trade an instrument they don't understand.

Most investors I meet have NEVER made money on a stock that dropped in value after they invested in it. They simply don't know a single strategy that will make money in a falling market, so they are resigned to hoping their losses are small, rather than planning to eliminate their losses and potentially replace them with profits. That's like taking off for a drive in your car and only being able to turn left. That may work in the world of Nascar, but that won't get you to your destination in real life. The secret to making money in a bear market or even a flat market is knowledge. If you don't take the time to learn how to use options to protect yourself and profit when stocks are not going up, you'll continue to lose every time the market drops.

I've spent the past 12 years of my life teaching investors around the world how to use options to profit in any market condition. Last year I published a book titled, "Build Wealth in any Market" that outlines the specific strategies and tools you need to stop losing money and start making money when the market tanks. You can get a copy at www.traderslibrary.com for the best price online.

There is nothing more heartbreaking and devastating than losing money we worked so hard for. So stop it! Learn to trade options today and give yourself a chance to get into that 5% group that actually makes money when stocks are flat or down. Every day you wait is literally costing you money. A little investment in education will pay a lifetime of returns in the form or fewer catastrophic losses and more profits when stocks drop.

Visit my website at www.rossjardine.com to get my latest books and courses on money and investing. Make an investment in education in 2009 and I promise you'll enjoy the returns over the rest of your investing life.