Are the penny stock picks listed in the new issue better than the stocks in the issue from the month before? These are questions that any normal person
might ask themselves. Human nature is such that our curiosity can drive
us sometimes to make hasty decisions that are not well thought out.

You have to strike a reasonable balance when it comes to newsletters. The best way to do this (in my opinion) is to ask around or spend some time on the Internet doing comparisons. You need to face reality when it comes to your financial and emotional state of mind. Know your limitations.

Understand fully how much risk you can tolerate on a day to day basis. If you're the conservative type, and you don't enjoy risky ventures, then by all means stay away from newsletters that encourage day-trading or high risk momentum trading strategies.

On the other hand, if you're a roll the dice kind of person, I doubt that you'd want to subscribe to a newsletter that followed one stodgy old stock for the entire year. No matter what type of personality you are, I would suggest that you try to reach that happy balance that fits your style.

Make a decision as to what type of stocks you want to follow. That could be big Blue Chips, small caps, technology stocks, regionals, bio-techs, turnaround stocks, takeover candidates, energy stocks, or whatever. Of course, we'll be following low-price stocks, so that narrows things down.

Make sure that the market letter that you subscribe to will be following the
markets that you want to trade in. In the U.S. that would primarily be the New York Stock Exchange, the AMEX, and NASDAQ markets. Don't buy a newsletter that makes recommendations in markets you don't follow.

Be sure that the newsletter writer's investment philosophy matches your
own. The writer's personal outlook (on life in general) will also play a big
part in whether or not you will be happy with your decision. Each advisor has (his or her) own distinct character traits

These traits will exhibit themselves in the overall investment strategies put forth by writer. You'll either feel comfortable with the writer or you won't. Go ahead and bite the bullet and order a subscription to a newsletter alert service and pay close attention. A hundred bucks a year (or so) is dirt cheap!