Content Related Links

This section will be links to sites that we feel are content related to ours. These are not randomly placed ads. They will be specific sites that I feel are professional and of possible use to you.

First, you should always research any company that you are considering doing business (online trading) with. Unfortunately there are a lot of scam sites out there. The following two links are excellent places to start checking out companies:

http://www.cftc.gov/ U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission
This is how they say it:
“Congress created the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in 1974 as an independent agency with the mandate to regulate commodity futures and option markets in the United States…
The CFTC’s mission is to protect market users and the public from fraud, manipulation, and abusive practices related to the sale of commodity and financial futures and options, and to foster open, competitive, and financially sound futures and option markets.”
Among other things, the site has articles on Fraud Alerts and this is where you can file complaints. A lot of stuff to read- it is a dot gov site.

http://www.nfa.futures.org/ National Futures Association
This is from their page:
” National Futures Association (NFA) is the industrywide, self-regulatory organization for the U.S. futures industry. We strive every day to develop rules, programs and services that safeguard market integrity, protect investors and help our Members meet their regulatory responsibilities. ”
Pretty much this is another place to check out a company prior to doing business with them and a good place to start if you are having problems.

Trading Platforms, Brokerages:
PLEASE- Regardless of how much I might say I like a particular company or site, do your own research.

FXClub.com This is a Forex platform site. If you join you get access to some really great learning videos, among other things. Last time I checked they were charging a small fee for that item, but don’t hold me to it. I’m not going to shout about how much anything costs or specials and such. If you are looking for a reputable company to do Forex trading thru, check out their site and see what you think. Personally, I like ’em.

Web Master Related Links
The W3C buttons over on the right of my pages, if clicked, will take you to a “validator” that will test the web page against professional standards. Try it if you want, it hurts nothing and it’s NOT an affiliate thing. I don’t get a penny for it. The WAI doesn’t actually test the page. I’ve heard of a site that does that, but I haven’t checked it out in depth yet. When I do, if it’s decent I’ll put up a tester for it as well. Unless I changed something in a hurry and goofed, all my pages should pass. Let me know if you find an error. 🙂

We should also give credit where credit is due. Below are links to various services and elements that we used in creating and maintaining our site.

Some of the elements used on our web site were borrowed from work originally created by Arcsin.
The slick transitional effect of our posters on the Gallery page is Lightbox. Lightbox has proven very stable and highly effective for us. If you are designing a web page to display pictures or other visual items, you should check it out.
Our shopping cart interface is provided by e-Junkie. It integrates with PayPal very smoothly and is a secure, solid product. Personally, I like the popup effect of the cart. 🙂
The web page translator is a MS Windows Live feature. I’ve actually read a “professional” blog where the guy complained he didn’t like the side by side view. My answer is- pay attention. At the top right is a row of buttons where you can change the view any way you like.
Our currency conversion feature is provide by Dynamic Converter. If you are a web master, note that if you use the feature, it fails the validator test. You’ll have to modify things a bit. Another item to be aware of is it checks the referring domain. So when I first set it up and tried it out thru our translator page, it didn’t like it. Once I added the translator domain to the allowed list, it works within the translated pages. I think that is extremely cool. Give it a try, you’ll see what I mean.
The nifty social bookmarking button at the bottom of each page is from AddThis. Beats the heck out of trying to craft 10 different links on every page. I really like it. The only issues I have found so far is it doesn’t seem to like Opera. I like Opera, so I’m trying to find a fix for it. Give me time…