This is how to uncover the amount of stock held by the officer of any publicly held company.  Go to the NASDAQ web site and enter the stock ticker symbol for the company you are interested in. Click on ‘Flash Quotes’. Use the drop down box to select ‘Insider Form 4′. Scan down the list until you find the company officer’s name you are interested in. Click on that name. Go to the top of the list which should be the latest date. Move your eyes to the far right column entitled ‘holdings’. That is how many shares that officer currently holds and controls. Multiply that number by the most recent price for the company’s stock and you will arrive at a dollar figure.

Of course, that figure will change from day to day. You may be amazed at just how high that number is. Consider that this is merely the officer’s current stock holdings. It doesn’t tell you how many shares he has sold in the past; it also doesn’t tell you how many shares the company will grant him or her in the future.

When you start to look at these figures you may find them amazing. If you are currently a company CEO or officer, the numbers will not shock you because you will already be familiar with them. However, if you are currently an employee for a publicly held company you may wonder about the discrepancy between your salary and the officers’ stock holdings.

Some will say, “but the CEO and other officers worked hard for their money”. And that may very well be true. But did they really work any harder than you on a day to day basis? And if they did, does the harder work they did add up to account for the discrepancy between an average worker’s pay and a company officer’s stock holdings? Chances are, the answer is no.

This leads to some interesting realizations about how our economy works. The days of serfdom are supposed to be over, but are they really? We now have an economic feudal system. The real estate owned and tribute collected by a monarch have been replaced with stock compensation for corporate officers and owners. But the serf or worker is the one who does the work. The monarch and his court are still the ones who reap the rewards.

In private companies you probably won’t be able to find out the information that you can find on the NASDAQ web site about publicly traded companies. I think it is a good thing that the SEC or Securities and Exchange Commission requires this information to be available to the public. Of course, it is meant to be available to potential investors. But if you own stock in your company via a 401K plan, then you are an investor.

Besides the NASDAQ web site, you can also find this information on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s web site. In fact, there is a wealth of information out there to discover. In many instances it is actually easier to find on the NASDAQ web site.

Perhaps knowing the value of the stock held by company officers will make you less timid about asking for that raise you’ve been thinking about. Knowledge often equates to power.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act applies to those who collect debts owed to creditors for personal, family and household debts. These include car loans, mortgages, charge accounts and money owed for medical bills. A debt collector is someone hired to collect money you owe.

Within five days after a debt collector first contacts you, the collector must send you a notice that tells you the name of the creditor, how much you owe, and what action to take if you believe you don’t owe the money.

If you owe the money or part of it, contact the creditor to arrange for payment.

If you believe you don’t owe the money, contact the creditor in writing and send a copy to the collection agency with a letter telling them not to contact you. A debt collector may not:

Contact you at unreasonable times, for example, before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., unless you agree;

Contact you at work if you tell the debt collector your employer disapproves;

Contact you after you write a letter telling them to stop—except to notify you if the collector or creditor plans to take a specific action;

Contact your friends, relatives, employer or others—except to find out where you live and work;

Harass you through threats to harm you, profane language or repeated telephone calls;

Make any false statement, or claim that you will be arrested; or

Threaten to have money deducted from your paycheck or to sue you—unless the collection agency or creditor intends to do so and it is legal.

You have a responsibility to pay off any debt that you owe.  Debt collection agencies also have a responsibility to treat their customers with respect and follow the law.

If you are being harassed by a debt collection agency, contact the authorities and report them.

Imagine, just you setting up a forex account, trading your currency against another country’s currency to make money. Or perhaps consider that you could trade any currency in the world, as long as the broker supports the inter-trading of the two forms of money.

Being in forex trading has alot of positives and negatives. Sure you can at least imagine the positive benefits, of being financially independent, making money off of competing currencies, trade on the laptop on a yacht in the middle of nowhere, drinking a mai-tai, and have a ball living it up.

Now let’s also bring to focus the cons of trading forex. For one, there is a potential catastrophic loss of funds if you do not know what the heck you are doing. You just cannot drop your life savings or snack money to a forex trading account and expect it to grow money. Alot of traders, matter in fact close to 95% of traders end up losing their shirts the first go around, and ever if they try again, they bet more money, and get into serious debt. The thought of answering to your wife about losing all of your son’s college money to speculating the euro/dollar is not pleasing I am sure.

Now, that we have compared two extreme situations, one for the good, and one for the bad, we need to see what we can do, if you are even still interested in forex trading at this point, you should build a descent knowledge base on trading, and a success plan to manage and earn over a period of time.

When I say plan for earning money, it doesn’t mean double your money in a short time. It means growing incremental income over a longer term time frame, rather you do it with day trading, or long term positioning. Having at first a modest gain, will get you to learn how to build your game trading forex. It doesn’t happen overnight, and usually the folks who are luck first and foremost, will end up losing some later in the process anyway.

Recently, I have stumbled upon a new forex program, called forex raptor. Forex Raptor is a totally unique and automated piece of software, that on all of the major currencies. Yes that means the software monitors and tracks major currency pairs such as the dollar against the euro, dollar against the yen, euro against the pound etcetera.
The major currency pairs are the ones where the majority of successful forex traders speculate and make their coin. Rarely do anybody make major amounts of money on lesser known “exotic” pairs.

With forex Raptor, either making a second income, or creating the ultimate work at home career trading currencies will assist you in becoming part of the trading elite. Imagine trading as well as the top guys without looking endlessly at charts, reading news about some oil company robbing peter to sell mary, and seeing how that affects currency pricing.

Forex Raptor has 24 hour access to trading pros, just in case concerns and question do arise, and they will eagerly assist you in process of learning the trading software too!