The returns of the stocks above were determined by using our originally discussed prices and if we discussed multiple buy-in prices, we then used the actual average share price based upon our specific buying instructions. Furthermore the performance INCLUDES all losses on closed positions since we launched our newsletter. We will update the returns here about once a quarter (our last update was on June 30, 2008). We launched our investment newsletter on June 15, 2007, so the returns below of this brand new portfolio contain the effects of the severe August 2007 global stock market corrections and the recent January 2008 year huge declines in global markets (i.e. the U.S. DJIA index dropped more than 1,700 points in 14 trading days and the Japanese Nikkei 225 index dropped more than 960 points in just 4 trading days). To protect the value of our picks to our subscribers, we can not reveal the individual names of the stocks, only the performance returns. (*Past performance does not guarantee future results). Please note that our performance does not include just our open positions as reported by most newsletters (a very deceitful practice of the investment newsletter industry, but includes all of our previously closed positions as well. For example, if we reported only the returns of our open positions, our performance would leap from 21.68% to more than 33.00%!

Though the annualized return on our Model Portfolio is quite high, since our current portfolio seeks to build rapid wealth through the impending crisis, since the worst of the impending global financial crisis has yet to come, we actually believe that 40%, 50%, or 60% annual gains or higher is an achievable goal in the coming years, though probably not for this current year due to the massive free market intervention by the U.S. Federal Reserve in the past several months that has created quite a lot of volatility in our stock portfolio as of late. Still, our stellar performance given the huge plunges in global equity markets during the past 12-1/2 months we have operated demonstrates the power of our strategy. Remember that our above returns do not have the benefit of having the entire first half of FY2007 bull markets priced into them as we launched the portfolio right before the global market meltdown. This makes our returns even more outstanding. And unlike other newsletters, our returns are not just the returns of our open stock picks (which is extremely deceiving) but INCLUDES losses of any positions we have closed since the launch of our newsletter.

As you can see, when you compare our closed positions to our open positions, at times, our stop loss strategies during the most volatile times in global stock markets during the past 12-1/2 months caused some of our open positions to be closed out, only to be repurchased once again to be held in our Model Portfolio. For example, if you see Picks #2 and #3 listed in both our "open" and "closed" positions, that means strict stop losses we places on these stocks cause us to be stopped out during extremely volatile markets but that we re-purchased them later when the opportunity once again offered a low-risk, high-reward scenario. You may notice that we closed out one of the above stocks when it hit our stop loss price of $10.22 after initially discussing it at $12.80 a share. However, we immediately recommending re-purchasing it after the stock demonstrated a little bit more stability, and then averaged up in price as the stock demonstrated further stability for a re-established position of $13.85. The stock then appreciated to more than $23.32 a share as of June, 2008. We discuss this scenario just to let you know that you should expect a greater level of volatility in our Global Stock Picker investment portfolio for a greater possibility of returns, and as counterintuitive as this may sound, for a higher level of safety (please keep reading to understand this concept). However, for those of you that have read much of the material on our website, you should be well aware that we strongly believe that volatility does not necessarily equate to risk, that volatility can be leveraged to your advantage through the types of intelligent strategies we exercise in our newsletter, and that volatility can be employed to your advantage as opposed to allowing it to become a disadvantage.

In addition, for those of you that always have been led to believe that "traditional" stock portfolios will provide less stress due to a less volatile ride, while this may be true during times of economic prosperity, during times of economic crisis such as the one we currently face today, 2007 and 2008 clearly demonstrated that "traditional" stock portfolios can exhibit extreme periods of volatility and are no less likely to grant you any greater piece of mind that participating in a much more intelligent strategies that are also likely to also exhibit short periods of volatility but that, unlike traditional portfolios, are likely to reward those willing to weather these periods of volatility with great rewards.

As well, our Global Stock Picker portfolio is designed to perform tremendously as inflation worldwide continues to explode and therefore is overweighted towards investments that will prosper in inflationary environments such as hard assets and commodities. Therefore some of the volatility of our portfolio happens due to the increasingly desperate measures taken by Central Banks as they fight to prevent massive economic slowdowns and failure in their nation's economies. However, despite short periods of time where we may sacrifice some of our profits in our Model Portfolio due to these desperate measures, we strongly feel that these periods of volatility downward will be short-lived as no measures currently being implemented by Central Banks worldwide, specifically those of the U.S. Federal Reserve, are sustainable at the current time.

Thus, until we see a marked shift in the plans of Central Banks to intelligently address the grave financial problems that the world currently faces by measures other than their present course of action to "paper" over the problems with foolish, inflationary solutions, we are well content with weathering temporary periods where we may give back some of our profits. This, we do, of course, with the lure and promise of periods of quite likely massive outperformance in the future as we keep a firm eye on the future path of destruction that is being engineered today by the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks as they continue to sacrifice future global economic prosperity for the sake of short-term political appearances.

Because SmartKnowledgeU™ strategies are formulated on building wealth by analyzing the odds of success determined by the true picture of the global economy as opposed to analyzing the current, much manipulated picture of the global markets that exist at the surface level, our Global Stock Picker investment newsletter is most appropriate for those of you that are willing to seek the truth beyond surface-level shenanigans and accept resultant short-term periods of interim volatility due to your understanding of the unsustainable nature of currently implemented solutions and your understanding of how these unsustainable solutions will only trigger a much more harsh reality in the very near future.