There is a confluence of issues that prevent me from bringing you a thoughtful market or stock piece today.  Those issues include the undeniable facts that:

• It’s Friday
• The Markets are Closed
• It’s my Birthday
• The Kids are on Spring Break
• The Masters is in Full Swing

So today the Scheidt family is going to head out to the park and do our best to come back with the same number of kids we started out with.  Good Friday is a special day for us and I’m looking forward to spending some reflective time and enjoying a bit of Atlanta sunshine.

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But rather than punt for the day, I thought I would commemorate my birthday by launching a free friendly stock competition.  In fact, if we get enough interest, I think it would be fun to set this up on a quarterly basis.  I don’t have any doubt that some of you will make aggressive calls and best my picks in any given quarter.  But the contest will be a good way for all ZachStocks readers to share ideas and a good bit of competition.

UpDown will host the competition and you can enter for free using the link above or the widget to the right.  One of the features I like about this setup is that you can trade from both the long and the short side so we should be able to perform well in any type of market.

I plan to figure out the best way to keep the standings posted on ZachStocks so that we can all track the winners.   So please sign up, try your hand at this market, and share your ideas with fellow ZachStocks readers.

Upcoming Podcast

This weekend we will have plenty to talk about for the ZachStocks Podcast.  Issues we will cover may include credit card chargoffs, glimpses into the beginning of earnings season, further thoughts on the uptick rule, unemployment trends, and possibly a rant on the debate surrounding credit card interest rates (I may surprise you with my approach).  So stay tuned, enjoy this free day, and we’ll chat over the weekend.