How do you do it and who do you compare yourself to?

Read "The Essays of Warren Buffet, Lessons for Corporate America".  Focused Investing, Trading, are all connected.

Our fundamentals start with 'Corporate Goverance' and go all the way to 'Accounting Policy and Tax Matters'.  Read this book 5 times, and you will just start to understand a whole new level about stocks you are picking whether to hold for 3 months, 1 year, 5 years, or 10 years.

We love TheStreet.com.  Stay away from the rest, really.  Some of the other $30, $40, $100 per month stock picking services will lose you money, real quick.  Be careful here.

Cramer and pack are good, if you know when he is really recommending, and when he is giving a general opinion.  When it is obvious he has done his 'hedge fund' level of research, the picks are right on.  His Action Alerts Plus product seems to filter out the fact that he recommends many stocks on his Mad Money TV show.

There are some others in our line of business which are very expensive, and reputable, but all you really need is thelimitorder.com.