I wanted to share with you an article sent to me that might help you understand more about Israel, their history and why it's truely amazing that they continue to endure despite being under such heavy economic pressures.

Israel the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world's population, can lay claim to the following:

The cell phone was developed in Israel by Israelis working in the Israeli branch of Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel.

Most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel.

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You are up all night doing your fundamental research on a stock. You love the company, you love their products and they are fundamentally sound from top to bottom. Thus you decide to pull the trigger and purchase their stock. 6 months later, the stock has tumbled and you are left scratching your head as to why people are selling such a sound company.

The truth is, had you looked at the chart, the answer was right there all along. All you had to do was recognize and read the signals the chart was giving you. The price pierced the 200Day SMA on high volume, the relative strength index signaled an overbought situation, a head-and-shoulders top formed. In short, there were numerous technical indicators screaming that a buy now would cost you that summer vacation or maybe force you to make a car payment with your savings money. All because you never saw the signs staring you right in the face.

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Newell Rubbermaid (NYSE: NWL) is now the company that is found in almost every home and office around America. This manufacturer of home organization products, such as plastic outdoor storage sheds, kitchen, hardware, seasonal, cleaning products (brooms, dustpans, and refuse containers), and commercial items. In 1994, Rubbermaid was voted America's most admired company. Newell, a major competitor, bought Rubbermaid for $5.8 billion in 1999. They have come a long way since the 1902 curtain manufacturer to say the least.

Technically speaking the stock looks to have set up nicely here. Fundamentally speaking I would have liked to see Newell Rubbermaid a bit stronger. It is not weak in all fundamental categories however, and one of the most important categories is group rank, or how a company compares to their competitors. Is it a group leader or not? In this case yes, NWL scores 74.5% on the group rank scale.

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The head and shoulders top is a short-term bearish reversal pattern that gives way to short opportunities. The price enters the pattern from the bottom and breaks out to the bottom thus reversing the prevailing price trend.

This pattern is among the most popular patterns to trade in the market for reasons that stem from the patterns reliability, performance and easy identification. It is a fairly simply pattern to recognize in that there will be three spikes with the center spike being the highest. More often then not the left shoulder will carry the highest volume as well.

A trend line drawn along the bottoms of the two troughs and between the three peaks is known as the neckline. The neckline is nothing more than an indicator used to predict how severe the price decline is going to be. This line slopes up half the time and down half the time. An upward sloping trend line would could suggest the stock might have a slight pullback before continuing its decline. These trend lines will serve as a new resistance point. The neckline also serves as a confirmation point. Should the price decline pierce the neckline, assuming no pullback, prices will continue to move downward to the next resistance level.

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Last time I checked my pocket reference guide to ethics, stealing, regardless of the denomination, was not all right and, if caught, would lead to some sort of penalty. Well I guess the higher-ups at Wal-Mart do not agree. The nation's largest employer is moving away from what it called a zero-tolerance policy on prosecuting shoplifters. They will now only prosecute thief’s caught taking merchandise worth $25 or more. In other words, as long as these thief’s are not too greedy, then it's almost worth taking the risk? Do I understand this right? You can find the original report here. On top of this, Wal-Mart has also set an age limit. Only those between the ages of 18 and 64 who steal at least $25 worth of goods will be prosecuted.

The original policy went after anyone, regardless of age, who took at least $3 dollars worth of goods. If I was a person of mis-guided values, I would be licking my chops at this new policy and pushing my luck knowing the worst that can happen if I get caught stealing that nice $24 china set is NOTHING! Does Wal-Mart even have security in their stores? The last I checked the only person guarding the door was a nice lady in a wheel chair pushing 70 years of age. I just can't seem to grasp this new concept but I am sure Wal-Mart must have some logical explanation for it. Please inform me if you know what it is.

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Sears Holding has long been a stock that Jim Cramer from TheStreet.com has recommended. Over the past couple months it had done very well despite the overall market weakness. Like I have mentioned many times before in the past, knowing when to buy is only half the battle. Knowing when to sell is the other half. Well today is that day for Sears Holding. All signs point to sell here, including the volume increase indicating strong selling pressure here - enough to move it through two levels of support. There is a big gap that needs to be filled and I believe the stock will fill that gap no problem over the next week or two here. I hope the stock can then hold the 200 DMA or we could see even lower lows.

Additional selling pressure seems to be coming from the announcement that vice chairman Alan Lacy will end his tenure at the company. This will be his last month with Sears Corp and will take a nice exit package reportedly valued at more than $50 million.

Sears Holdings Corp. said late Tuesday that Lacy, the vice chairman of the company, will leave the retail conglomerate on July 29. He also will give up his seats on the boards of both Sears Holdings and Sears Canada.

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If you were thinking what I was thinking this morning when CNBC first announced the news of Kenneth Lay's death, the autopsy later today showed that the Enron founder did in fact die of heart disease. Ken was 64 years of age and passed this morning a broken man. His recent guilty conviction could have led to decades of prison time - essentially a life sentence for someone a year away from qualifying for Medicare. Lay told jurors during his trial that he had lived out the American dream along with the American nightmare. Today I had a chance to ask some of my friends a question that I couldn't answer myself. I asked them would they rather be in Ken Lay's shoes today or the Ken Lay's shoes of yesterday? Alive or living out the American nightmare? It's a sad story no matter how you look at it and my heart still goes out to all those people who saw their life saving go down the drain because of the greed of someone already worth over $200 million dollars. Let's hope this serves as a reminder to those in higher power that what goes around comes around eventually. If you are still confused, then please refer back to my last article about donating to charity and helping out those less fortunate, those not worth $200 million dollars and those trying to make ends meet to support their family and children.

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Granted my donations might not be on the same level as Mr. Buffett’s, but nonetheless I take a sense of pride in giving back to charities that touch close to home and that I support deeply. The majority of my donations come in the form of participating in golf tournaments, private donations and the United Way Foundation. This year I will play in several golf tournaments that give back to the community and local charities. I also donate a portion of every paycheck to the United Way to help out on a more global scale. Two of the golf tournaments that I will be participating in this year include the Joseph D. Helmuth Foundation Tournament (Philadelphia, PA) and the Tim Milgate Charity Tournament (Rochester, NY).

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