These are the times when that seemingly illusive "good" financial advice differentiates itself from the rest. A kiss, a welcomed cup of coffee and an enjoyable breakfast free of ulcers and concern about what the last 24 hours financial "Armageddon" means to me. The boys at NPC didn't call to tell me woes of meltdown. The call I did get was to re-assure me that they had hedged my AUD/USD mortgage at 0.9300 (telling me it was now 0.8800 and saving me $10000 on the potential exchange loss). That my Dubai property hedge had been removed at the same time on the expectation of a medium strengthening of the USD, crystalizing a profit of 120% on the face value, rather than a notional decline of 55% in the last 12 months on the wholesale collapse in the capital values of our local real estate market). And that my investment account was up US$170k in 3 days after they'd finally been rewarded for their expectations on what Greeces turmoil meant for the EUR and "risk based" currencies. All then validated by me going into my transparent, online account and seeing the numbers in black n white.
In amongst all of that, I actually get to feel the buzz of trading and a proxy sense of achievement.
This thread began with someone in search of good advice. It's when markets collapse and people panic that the cream rises to the surface.
Good luck punting your own money. I'm guessing the above self-managed portfolio looks even less impressive again. And that ignores the opportunity costs and the cost of capital.