Dear Spikers and SpikeTrade Members,If 'the January Indicator' applies to our group, we should have a very good year. The Spike group as a whole has gained over 4% in January. Only two Spikers underperformed the S&P, while the great majority beat the index. Kerry is doing a fantastic job keeping records for our group. I have often said "Show me a trader with good records, and I will show you a good trader." Perhaps I should add "Show me a group with good records..." I hope you are tracking equity charts on the members' home page of www.spiketrade.com/members/, updated each weekend, showing the top four Spikers for the past 13 weeks. This week Ross is in the lead, with Henry on his heels, followed by Jeff and Susie. Kerry and I have just finished writing checks and sending diplomas to Q4-2008 winners, as well as special prizes to 2008 annual winners. We look forward with pleasure to writing more checks and signing diplomas for Q1-2009, two months from today.I have been trading this month together with Pat and was surprised by the January report she wrote for us yesterday. Going beyond the percentage of winning trades (high) and the slope of the equity curve (rising), she made several entries that made me stop and think: the best trade, the worst trade, the best entry, the worst entry, the best exit, the worst exit. It was a surprise to see my most profitable trade classified as our worst trade for the month. I made it in a hurry, with no written plan, and sat through a nasty drawdown before the trade began to work.I hope you are keeping good records. At a risk of sounding self-serving, I recommend using AK47, created by Kerry, Jeff, and me. We built it for ourselves and later offered it to the public. You can see a demo here http://shop.elder.com/shopexd.asp?id=341 and if you decide to get it, be sure to ask Inna for a Spike discount - 10% off and free delivery.<a href="www.spiketrade.com/members/">SpikeTrade</a>