Cara Community Bill began his Cara Community blog, in which he gives daily trading and economic commentary, and hosts a lively discourse, in April of 2004. Soon afterward, he was named Forbes magazine “Favorite Trading Blog”, and has received accolades from Barron’s and The Wall Street Journal. He is now widely known as an analyst and commentator of current global financial issues and his popular website is routinely visited by over 100,000 readers from 140 countries around the world. He states, “The blog’s purpose is to demystify the capital markets and help return control of those financial assets to the people who own them. People need accurate information and appropriate tools and techniques.” Accordingly, he is known as a populist, but refers to himself as a Free Market Patriot.
Scroll down for:
• Looking ahead: excerpts from Bill's January 8, 2008 blog commentary
• Comments from readers of the Cara Community blog
• Biography


Blog excerpts, January 8, 2008:

"Analysts will be looking at the mega-billion dollar write-downs of firms like Citi and Bank of America. Pension, hedge and mutual funds, and corporations have also purchased this bad paper. Globally, I expect the aggregate damage will be between $250 billion and $1 trillion, something the world has never seen. The issue is that some financial institutions will fail and when they do, others will not get paid and will run into financial difficulties."

"Fiat money of most of the economic powers will be poured into the financial system to keep it afloat. Normally, the $USD would plummet, but this time the $USD will remain in the 75-83 range. While other nations may walk away from creditors, the possibility of the US doing that is slim to none, and that will keep the $USD and Treasury prices strong."

"Crude Oil prices will fall unless the producers wish to have a world depression."

"I have no idea where equity prices will close the year, but I suspect that as corporate earnings fall due to write-downs, business failure affect, slowing economies, etc, prices will be significantly lower."


Comments about the Cara Community blog:

"Bill Cara is the defacto spokesman for a growing group of finance and investment professionals who are speaking out about inequities in capital markets. Through four years of daily writing he has steadily built a large blog readership ranked as one of the more elite and enlightened among that of any media offering. His readers work with him as a community through lively discourse and help evolve and fine tune the focal point of his views—capital markets and social equity... Scholars of social change will witness the direction initiated by Bill Cara’s writings as he advocates the protection of trader rights ..."
-- Peter C. Simmons, Ph.D (Chief Market Sciences Executive, Enterprise Support Company/ESC), reports,

“When I needed it most – nearing retirement – Cara's fascinating free blog proved a godsend to me. Finally I found someone who knows from long study and wide experience precisely what he is talking about, and one who relishes sharing his knowledge for the common good. For a small, naive investor like me, discovering Bill Cara has improved my life. I am most sincerely grateful.”
-- John Stein, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

“…I have saved my family thousands of $$$ by making informed choices based on (Bill Cara’s) greater world market views… Never in my wildest dreams would I have expected someone to share their life long expertise of the markets and trading wisdom openly and free to boot! … His discourse has added clarity to the markets where there was once only dizzying confusion and haphazard gains…”
-- Steve Baert, Thorndale, Ontario

“… With the plethora of investment blogs, I've read hundreds… Bill Cara's is the only one that I still use on a daily basis… Bill educated me so I became more confident and used my new skills. In 2009 I will (open a CTAB account). I'm joining for two reasons: to make money and to become a better trader.”
-- Sarah-Hadassah Hoffmann, Via Internet

“… It was apparent to me that after reading his analysis and comments on world capital markets for a few weeks that Bill was genuine in his desire to educate and assist the individual trader, and to be a voice of social responsibility where ever he might be heard… His choice of financially sound company's in his Cara 100 has brought my portfolio nice gains…
-- David Berry, Via Internet


Biography:

Bill Cara, founder of Cara Trading Advisors (Bahamas) Lid. [CTAB], is a highly regarded capital markets professional with over 35 years of managerial and entrepreneurial experience in the Canadian and Bahamas securities industries. A cum laude graduate of Waterloo Lutheran University, Waterloo, Ontario, and McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Bill organized and managed Qtrade Investor Ltd. of Vancouver, Canada, a nationally registered investment dealer that within a year appreciated in business value by over $100 million after a global bank invested $14 million. Qtrade has been rated by Report On Business as the number-one electronic broker in Canada for several years. He retains his original shares.
Prior to that, he was founder and Chief Executive Officer of eastern Canada for Canarim/Canaccord Capital, Canada’s largest independent broker-dealer member of the Toronto Stock Exchange. During that time he hired and trained a professional staff of 80 and was responsible for the company’s total brokerage operation from the penthouse of the Toronto Stock Exchange.
During the 1980’s, he participated as lead manager in the creation and selling of almost $100 million in debt and equity securities for Canadian and US start-up corporations, the most notable being Star Data, Genesis Microchip, and Environmental Technologies, an undertaking that created shareholder values of almost $1 billion, and resulted in hundreds of jobs in Toronto and Silicon Valley, California. In the 1990’s, at the request of the Prime Minister of The Bahamas, he was responsible for about $100 million of direct investment into the local economy, including the re-development of the British Colonial Hilton Hotel in Nassau.
Bill has been called as an expert witness by the Canadian Securities Administrators at a forum on electronic trading brokerage and also by the Senate of Canada Banking Committee Task Force on the future of Canada’s financial services industry. The Government of Canada has invited Bill to speak with Canada’s senior trade commissioner in three Asian countries. He has also been a member of the Government of Ontario Task Force which reviewed the operations of the Canadian unlisted securities market, operated by the Toronto Stock Exchange.
In 2008, Bill established Cara Trading Advisors (Bahamas) [CTAB] as a professional service that manages accounts held by a global clientele in electronic brokerages. His firm offers a non-traditional portfolio management model providing discretionary trading services that optimize returns according to individual risk profiles, while allowing clients to retain complete control of their accounts.
Bill lives in Nassau, The Bahamas, having moved from Toronto, Canada.