In my Web travels, I've collected several different philosophies with regards to investing internationally. I've read that it can be a very good option in case the U.S. stock market ever crumples. I believe the thinking is that this is just another way to diversify your portfolio to take advantage of foreign business opportunities that may exist while better positioning you to withstand any volatility that may occur in the U.S. markets.

Well…that could make sense.

Others say that the stability of the stock market is such that a total collapse is highly unlikely so there is no need to place money elsewhere due to fears about the U.S. stock market.

And…that makes sense also.

My own personal take on this issue? I have had to struggle so hard just to learn about our stock market here, that the thought of even attempting to learn about foreign stock markets…makes me ill.

But that is never a reason to avoid something, so lets take a look.

First let's check with another of my favorite stock market authors. In his book Eight $teps To $even Figure$, Charles B. Carlson clears up so many difficult concepts for me by writing in an easy-to-understand format.

To whit Mr. Carlson reports "Non-U.S. companies account for over 60 percent of the world's stock-market size. That share is likely to exceed 70 percent within the next ten years. To exclude overseas investment is to exclude a lot of the world's potential growth".

Mr. Carlson also indicates that his personal portfolio has about 25% in international stock. In addition, as we also further consider diversifying, his stock portfolio includes 50% in large-company stocks, with the other 25% placed in small-and mid-sized companies.

What a nice variation that we probably should consider for our own portfolios. A few weeks ago we looked at diversifying our companies by the category they were listed under. Now we can also make some decisions on how to diversify by looking at the actual sizes of our companies.

Ha! We're diversifying in many ways and that's what the experts have encouraged us to do all along. But, before we celebrate, let's begin to find out how we can tap into that international stock that Mr. Carlson mentioned.

Get ready to research Moms. I found two Web sites where we can begin our overseas journey.

This first site is from the Bank for International Settlement to the World
Bank and this site is huge. I just spent over an hour there and barely scratched the surface. Get a cup of coffee or tea and just relax. It's something along the lines of everything you wanted to know about overseas investing but were afraid to click.

This next site from Looksmart.com-Guides To International Investing is also packed with additional information including Australia, Asia, Canada, Cuba and the alphabetized list just keeps going. Get a second cup of coffee before going here.

The Web is truly an amazing instrument. Imagine that we could own stocks in other countries and easily add those to our own portfolios, with just a click of the mouse. It is miraculous and an option that I plan on giving very serious consideration.

And I think we've diversified ourselves to death here.

Let's move on to some topics that piqued my interest when I first began my research. Those bad boys, those things that go bump in the night…day trading, penny stocks, and futures and options. I've read in so many places to avoid these possible stock market pitfalls but I really don't understand why they're so deadly to us BUYandHOLDers.

Let's find out. Our first possible pit fall for next week? Day trading.

Thank you for joining me,

Joyce