Kerry,

Back in the early days when I first dipped my toes in the stockmarket water I used full-fee brokers, but they did not seem to be interested in anything else except what they were trying to push, while maintaining some churning operation. After this "initiation" period, I did my own DDs on the stocks in my portfolio and found that I knew a lot more about those particular stock picks than my high-priced brokers. Then on-line came along, and I became my own broker (i.e., I ditched all them high-price brokers, since they did not do what I expected them to do) and only trust my own DD on the companies than those from brokers (or newsletter writers).

It's a good point about making them aware of the companies you keep in your portfolio. If you talk to them on a daily basis, then that would be a good opportunity to give them some "brain-washing" sessions, a bit at a time? Or, just give them the whole sales job on your favourite company (FNC?), say...in two minutes. Yes, this has been done in the office environment while riding the elevator with the company Kahuna. Just make sure that the sales job is to the point and completed when the elevator doors open. The last words should be "you'll see this proposal on your desk tomorrow". The next day, Kahuna would just sign off the proposal...mentioning to his chief of staff "yah, I talked to the author of this proposal yesterday and the fellow seemed to know what he's doing"...after reading only a half page Exec Summary.

Real life is not that simple, but the story illustrates the point that everyone of us is a salesperson, selling his/her ideas to others (but just don't make it sound like nagging).

Next time, you might want to do an experiment by giving a passionate 2-min "DD dump" to your favourite brokers. Following your little talk, they might rush to their iPad? to send out a red alert to all their clients "buy FNC...NOW, before it gets too expensive.

goldhunter (optimist?)