I was a 17 year old high school student at the time I began writing my infrequent, but very successful, email newsletter. My previous experience in the stock market had seen a number of ups and downs. At the age of 15 I managed to lose nearly 90% of my real portfolio on stocks like Panja Inc. and Cisco Systems.

After those devastating losses I took a couple of years off to get my bearings and actually study the markets. I decided to jump back into the markets as Iraq was becoming a major story (late ‘02). My new strategy involved buying small, undiscovered stocks that would likely benefit greatly from a war in Iraq , which I saw as inevitable. After extensively researching a number of different scenarios that I thought would have money making potential, I finally settled on a one: A land invasion would mean oil well fires and putting those out would require specially trained an equipped firefighters.

With a little research, I managed to find Boot & Coots International Well Control Inc. (WEL), based in Texas . It was the only publicly traded company geared specifically toward fighting oil well fires. As a hidden bonus, they had very close ties to Halliburton and just happened to have a large team already in Kuwait . Regardless of whether they would benefit greatly from the war, it became clear that as war approached, their stock would likely benefit.

And so, this thinly traded penny stock became the resting place for all of my hard earned money. I bought in at 28 cents. After buying and selling a couple of times, getting scared once that the company was headed for bankruptcy, and spending many nights tossing and turning, the scenario finally played out. When it became clear that war could not be avoided, WEL took off. Huge volume pushed it from around $1.00 to $2.55 in less than 30 minutes.

I had only been sitting in my Spanish class for ten minutes before my phone started vibrating. An SMS message told me that my $2.50 limit order had been filled. I asked to be excused from class and sprinted headlong to the library. After jumping on a computer and furiously logging into my Etrade account, I watched the stock sell off slightly. Thinking it was taking a breather I bought in again on the way down.

The rest is history, but suffice it to say, I didn’t come out of the experience as well as I should have. But, while some have suggested this should have been a signal for me to get out of the markets entirely – I saw things differently. I saw that there is an enormous amount of potential in ideas…not just in companies. If you can predict more often than not how the market will react to certain products, technologies, events, policy decisions, or trends, then you can likely profit enormously.

This age of new ideas, technologies, and major international action provides many more chances to profit from placing money on the right side. It is on these that I hope to capitalize. So watch the moves, follow the logic, and invest your money if you dare.

The information provided is obtained from other sources and no guarantees are made as to the completeness, accuracy or current relevance of the information. The information here is not solicitation nor an offer to deal in securities. Investors should always speak to an expert before investing and also check with the company as well as their broker.