"...but I digress"

I have always held to my tenet of writing this blog for me first as a method to journal some of my trading forays and to, perhaps, entertain a few who might be reading along. Nothing here is meant to be taken as advice on trading decisions even if I think they may be valid theories. I will do all the playing so I will be the one making or losing. I would still write it about the same if I had made it completely private.

I read other blogs and a number of newsletters and I am always surprised, or at least I used to be surprised, when a blog or newsletter would go commercial. Pushing advertising or affiliated sites, blogs or services with little more than a thin film of prose that may be interesting but mostly meaningless. I know that there is a desire to have an audience. While I would like to have lots of readers I also understand that I am not likely to go there as that would require me to refine my writing and start writing toward an external interest rather than for my personal desire.

Like everything in my trading I like to try out various things. I put an Adsense on my blog, I put a couple of Questrade ads in but that is about it. I think in the last year and a half my Adsense account is up to $15. Obviously I am not maximizing my potential as an online hack.

I suppose this is a little rantish, oh well.

There was one blog that I frequented for a while and I even found some decent information. I returned a few times over the last months and it has gone commercial. Affiliated links and little "reviewish" writeups along with a "premium lesson" link and a "subscription services" link. This means that the free blog is just a bunch of fluff with lots of hooks now.

I guess that I am disheartened after having tried out a number of paid services only to find a bunch of re-hashing of stuff that is available for anyone for free online or for a few bucks at the book store.

This is where the truth of "where's the money" shows through. Pumping services cannot help but take away from a genuine interest in trading and is reflected in the content of a commercial blog aimed more at making money than any real desire to enlighten or disseminate information.

I suppose if I streamlined my blog and gave some opinions on market direction and some tidbitty pieces of chart analysis I could pass it off as "premium" as well...right.

Off my soapbox for today.

Jeff.