1976 Granduated 3rd in class (I admit I was not yet the smartest person in the world) from large private university.

1980 Graduated from medical school.

1984 Finished residency in anesthesia.

2003 Retired from medicine, age 50. Trading/researching full time.

2005 Began earnest communication with all banks, investment funds and political reps I was in any way involved with to warn of catastrophic condition of financial system and "safe" investments. Got to the point of telling senators that their lack of supervisory control and public warning was bordering on traitorous. Ignored. After considerable consideration and in-depth research, I came to the inescapable conclusion that I was indeed the smartest person on this earthly sphere.

2008 Investment success- not less than 27% in any year since "retirement", while spending most of my time in more "prioritizing" activities.

2008 Two serious medical conditions hit so hard in August that I was unable to so much as raise my head to check investments until November. (Really bad timing, I know). Completed the year, to my humiliation, down 19%. The SPOTS has to give others a chance.

2009/January 16th My 10 month-old grand-daughter helps my investment tally by somehow buying a truckload of MTL when I left a brokerage account trade page open. Obvious successor to SPOTS.

2009 Gave up trying to convinced politicians of admitting to their hubris and greed. Gave up trying to convince family and friends (that I had been warning about the national real estate market since July of 2005) that they needed to completely change their way of thinking re: money, home and retirement. Spending much more time trading, as opposed to investing, due to the difficult nature of the markets. Medical conditions make it more difficult to continue my outdoor avocations, making it easier to trade.