Investing in the stock market and making money at it is very hard. Some of the most experienced and educated people fail to do this. Most people that trade stocks for a living lose all of the time. They just win more then they lose. They may lose $100,000 in one day, but will make $200,000 with the rest of their trades, later in the week. You have to constantly watch for signs that a stock is going to go up or down. These signs can be based off of news, press releases or by looking at charts.

There are so many factors when it comes to trading stocks that it could take years of experience before you can accurately trade. The risk of losing your money is very high and a lot of people make the mistake of risking too much when first starting out. They feel that it’s easy to just listen to free tips and catch a winner, easily making 100% profit all in one day. This rarely happens and when it does, people usually end up giving it back because they don’t quit.

I’ve had many experiences trading stocks. None of them went well. The reason I never did well is that I didn’t know what I was doing. I mostly bought stocks based on what certain investment forums and websites recommended. I made some profit a few times, but I never knew when to sell. I’d either sell to early, missing out on huge profits, or buy too late when the stock started to bottom out. Unless you are very good at this, you will most likely lose.

I’ve read several good books on reading charts and applying those techniques to trading. Many of the methods are time tested and proven. The problem comes with human emotions. If you hesitate to sell, or go off a hunch or a feeling then you will fail. The key to making money using these systems is to trust the system. It will not always succeed but it will work more then it doesn’t work. The key with these systems is to follow them exactly. You have to follow every step they give and repeat the process over and over, while using a good system of managing your money.

Unless you are willing to go to school and become educated in the area of the stock market, it’s not worth risking your money. You need to put in the hours, weeks and months learning how everything works and even still you will not be ready. You need to find someone that is very good at trading stocks and spend a lot of time watching them. Learn the ropes and become experienced.

Then start trading stocks with fake money and see how you do. I would recommend you do this for at least 6 months and if you do really well then start out with a small amount of money. Some amount that would not hurt you financially if you lost it. Then you work your way up. This is the proper approach but many people do not have the self control to do this. I am one of those people. I’ve lost enough money trading stocks that I have learned it’s not for me. It’s like gambling for me since I do not know what I am doing. Treat it the same way and be smart.

Christmas is the time for fun holiday parties with friends, family and co-workers. To make your next party a real hit you will want to have some fun Christmas games at your event. Below is a list of five fun games to play at your next Christmas party. These will get everyone involved in the joy of the holiday season.

Stocking Guessing Game – In this game you will have two large Christmas stocking and twenty x 2 (20×2) Christmas/Holiday objects. Make sure they are small enough to all fit in the stocking. Both stockings will have the 20 objects inside them. So you will need 2 of each to place in the stockings. Once you fill each one tie a string or robe around the top so nobody can see inside. You will then give everyone a piece of paper and let them know they have to figure out what the 20 objects are by feeling for them. The person with the most correct wins. You can do this with one stocking it will just make the game last longer.

Christmas Pictionary – Another great Christmas party game, you will be splitting up into teams of 3 or 4 depending on how many people are going to play. Set up a large pad of paper so everyone can see what will be drawn. Each group has to have everyone drawn something at least once. Make out about 20 to 30 cards to pick from all about Christmas, ex: Santa, Reindeer, sled, snow, north pole, etc. Every right answer gets one point and the first one to 5 wins.

Siamese Gift Wrap – For this Christmas game teams of 2 will race against the clock to see if they can wrap a gift. Sound simple? The twist is that they can only use one hand each, the other will be around their partners waist. They will have to work together to get it done the fastest. This is also a great way to get your gifts wrapped for free, just make sure it is nothing breakable.

Christmas Bingo – This is a printable Christmas game. You will need to print out some Christmas bingo game cards. For this do a search on the internet to find the ones that you like. Once you have the cards you want figure out how many numbers you will need and what letters for each one. Either right them out or do it on the computer and print them out. Then you will place them in a hat or bag and pull them out to call during the game. This can be a great game for kids and adults.

Christmas Trivia Games – For our last game let’s try to see how smart our party guests are. There are so many different categories for this game that it is almost endless. Here a just a few to get you started: Christmas movies, Christmas songs, Santa nick names, reindeer names, etc. As you can see you can have many different questions and really never run out. Once you figure out what you want the questions to be about do a search on the internet. You can find many printable Christmas trivia games so you don’t have to do a bunch or research or writing.

Out of the blue, you receive a letter informing you that your school has been selected for an educational compliance audit. It may come from your state education department, an accreditation body, or any number of other agencies. You aren’t happy. You curse. You panic. You ask out loud: “Why me?”What do you do next?This article offers some practical tips for Superintendents.Like death and taxes, audits are inevitable in the field of education. You can’t avoid them. While they come in different forms, each with a varied focus, reviews tend to have lots of things in common. As a result, there are common practices you can undertake to make the audit more bearable – and more productive.So let’s get started with a few things you can do to help prepare:1. Accept the Reality. Indeed, embrace it. There is nothing you can do to avoid the review. Sooner or later, every school district will be subject to one. You just hit the Educational Compliance Audit Lottery. Don’t waste any time crying over it. Instead, look at the sunny side: You can use the process to improve your school district.2. Commit to Excellence. Make a commitment to do whatever is necessary to achieve compliance and improve your school district. Recognize that, in some cases, this may be a multi-year process. Remember also that the people doing the audit are human beings, too. If the auditors see that you really care about what you are doing and really value the work they are doing, you might find them quietly or unconsciously rooting for you to succeed. Maybe, just maybe, that might result in them viewing your compliance cup as “half full” instead of “half empty.” It certainly can’t hurt.3. Educate Yourself. Get familiar with the Standards by which your school will be judged. In most cases, those Standards should be readily available online. If not, ask for them. Get acquainted with the jargon. Each agency, each review team, has its own lingo. You need to know what they are talking about so you can respond appropriately.4. Read Up. The compliance auditors about to visit your school have done this type of thing before. Maybe they haven’t been to your school before, but they’ve been elsewhere. They’ve written reports. Chances are excellent that some of those reports on online. Read some to get a “flavor” for what they’re looking for.5. Build a Team. After you figure out the extent of the task ahead, immediately put someone in overall charge of the process. Don’t pick yourself. You need someone who can devote significant energy to this effort, someone who is well organized and can meet deadlines, and someone with flexibility in his or her schedule. Working with that person, set up a Steering Committee to assist. You can certainly help lead the effort, hold your Team Leader to deadlines, and even run Steering Committee meetings if you’d like. But don’t try to do the work yourself. Don’t micromanage.6. Prepare for Bad News. Let your School Committee know about the upcoming audit and how your district is planning for it. Keep the members well informed, particularly if you suspect that bad news may be on the horizon.7. Get to Work. Gather the documents requested by the auditors. Submit them. Keep track of what you send. In my experience, documents are routinely lost or misplaced. Don’t send originals of anything. Always keep copies.8. Do a Self-Study. Doing a self-study has been required by some accreditation bodies for many years. But it’s not so common before other reviews. I highly recommend self-studies, whether they are required or not. You need to take a close look at where your district stands in relation to the Standards.9. Divide Up the Work. Put one person “in charge” of each of the Standards. That person should get thoroughly acquainted with that Standard and become your local “expert” on it. That person should investigate how well you are doing on that Standard and prepare a frank, confidential “warts-and-all” assessment. This internal report is a diagnostic tool. There is no need to sugar coat the findings.10. Prepare an Internal Report. Assemble the pieces into a full internal self-study. Distribute this report to your steering committee. Review it. Start developing plans to correct the most glaring weaknesses.11. Communicate. Keep your faculty and staff informed. Prepare an in-service presentation, letting everyone know about the upcoming review and what to expect. Spotlight some of the district’s strengths. Acknowledge areas of weakness. (If bad news is coming, they should know about it before it is posted on the Internet for the entire world to read.)12. Prepare for the Onsite Visit. Every review includes some type of visit to the school district. Depending on the type of review, the visit could last for up to a full week. Make the auditors’ jobs easy. Give them a comfortable area to work in, give them the technology they request, grant them easy access to the staff members who need to be interviewed, make sure everyone answers consistently, and make sure everyone tells them the truth. Make sure the auditors are well fed. Identify who will speak to them on behalf of the school on the various Standards. Generally, it should be the person who you earlier identified as your local “expert” on that Standard.13. Prepare Mentally. Recognize that no district is perfect. Yours is just the latest to be singled-out for scrutiny. If you’re a lower-scoring district on state exams, accept the fact that you may be scrutinized more closely than higher-scoring districts even if they have the exact same structural problems you have. Be prepared to cooperate fully with the examiners. Be prepared to get annoyed, angered, and frustrated by some of their questions.14. Fix Problems Right Away. Even before the visit, start working on your weaknesses. Depending on the audit rules and the time period the auditors are looking at, your efforts may not be “counted” in the final audit report but they will (1) demonstrate your commitment to the process, (2) get your faculty and staff working on something tangible and worthwhile, (3) get your district better prepared in the event that further scrutiny follows and (4) improve the quality of your district.Educational audits are a simple fact of life for all of us. As school administrators, we can spend our time complaining about them or we can make a conscious choice to use the audits (as time-consuming and frustrating as they may be at times) to help improve our school districts. Whatever option you choose, I hope that the preceding tips will be of some assistance to you.