Today the markets took a big hit due to credit market concerns. Worries about the subprime mortgage problems and increasingly difficult environment for corporate borrowing has sent the DOW tumbling over 400 points this afternoon. While many of our readers may look at today as a waste, others see it as an opportunity to get back into stocks they missed earlier this year. One such example is Ericsson Telephone Co (NASDAQ: ERIC). ERIC is a member of the Communications Services ($COMSRV) sector that has seen a good steady flow of institutional money over the last several months. Today it hits what we like to call it's "injection point" or level of critical support. A breach of these levels would send the stock tumbling and break and the long term up trend it has endured since the beginning of 2006.

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Maintaining a budget that is both reasonable and realistic is one of the more difficult things that we face in our daily lives. There is a fine line between what we want and what we really need to get by as bills mount and the misery of getting behind looms in the near distance. Oftentimes, we find ourselves using a payday loan to help us catch up and save ourselves the problems that can arise when bills and other expenses begin to overwhelm us. These payday loans are exceptional at allowing us to keep up and were created as short term loans in times of need. The careful use of these loans is imperative as they can also cause problems and headaches if not used responsibly.

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Futures and Options markets are valuable tool for investors who would like a fair measure of diversification. Derivatives are useful tools used widely for hedging and speculation purposes. With the option of trading these derivatives with significant leverage, many investors have turned to the derivatives markets. The volumes generated in these markets are huge and provide a storehouse of data, which can be used as insightful predictors of the market sentiments.

The futures markets exhibit various cues that can be used as valuable inputs to gauge the direction of the markets and that of individual stocks. Some of these cues are as below-

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A few weeks ago I went to a museum featuring life and society in the 1800’s. Seeing the stark contrasts between life then and now got me thinking about how the technological developments that have happened in that span of time have impacted the way we handle daily tasks.

Some have said that there have been more technological changes in the last 100 years than in the previous 1,000 years before that. Certainly such changes have impacted every aspect of our lives, from travel to dining to housing to healthcare. Despite the obvious inflation that has occurred since the 1800’s, there have also been developments in how we make, manage and spend our money as a result of technological developments. Here are my thoughts…

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Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE:EK) is the world's foremost imaging innovator. With sales of $10.7 billion in 2006, the company now focuses on its digital transition and traditional products and services to take, print and share pictures anytime, anywhere.

The companies first quarter earning were enough to get the stock to break through significant levels of resistance. From here, the stock has pulled back nicely and in doing so has presented us with an opportunity to buy back in on solid support levels. The magic number of Kodak's stock here is $27.09. At this level (which EK is fast approaching), the stock should see strong support. I look for the bounce to occur very close of this number. The graph below illustrates the resistance level and clearly shows the declining volume levels as the stock sells off into our buying range.

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Since finishing school in May and June, many college graduates are realizing that there are many new experiences, challenges and opportunities ahead. Between finding a job, moving away from home, leaving comfortable sets of friends behind and giving up the flexible college schedule for the more rigid 9-5 work week, there are many changes that come with finishing school.

In addition to all these changes, students also begin to work toward achieving financial independence. Throughout college, most people find that there is more money going out than coming in, as they are paying for tuition and living expenses and have little or no time to hold down a paying job. As a result a certain amount of debt accumulates. While there is the plus side that finishing college means graduates will have the chance to put their skills to use in jobs that will earn them money, graduation also marks the point in many peoples’ lives where they take on full responsibility for their finances, without the support of family or college financial aid advisers.

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Investors have been reiteratively forewarned to judiciously single out stocks based on strong fundamentals. The aberration committed by most however is to purchase stocks that are referred to as ‘Hot Picks’ or gainers by word of mouth or information on the internet.

The fact is that the time lag between discovery of these value picks and purchase often factors in whatever arbitrage is available. Consequently, an uninformed investor buys into a stock at its peak and is disappointed on its decline thereafter.

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