April 30: Oprah Winfrey and Harpo Studios Mark First National 'No Phone Zone Day'

Today, Oprah Winfrey and Harpo Studios are taking a stand against distracted driving, launching a new public service announcement campaign, and joining forces with some of the country's pre-eminent transportation safety organizations to declare Friday, April 30, 2010, the first national "No Phone Zone Day."

A large-scale effort to honor victims of distracted driving, "No Phone Zone Day" will also educate and activate Americans to end the deadly driving habits that kill nearly 6,000 Americans a year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The announcement was initally made April 6 on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

"A call or text isn't worth taking a life," said Winfrey. "We must not allow more mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, sisters and brothers to die before we take action against distracted driving. Let's put a stop to it now, by joining together on April 30 for national 'No Phone Zone Day,' and by making our cars a 'No Phone Zone.'"

"I've made it my mission at the DOT to end distracted driving," said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. "We know that if we can get people to put away cell phones and other electronic devices when they are behind the wheel, we can save thousands of lives and prevent hundreds of thousands of injuries every year. That's why I'm proud to support and participate in Oprah's 'No Phone Zone Day.'"

Today, The Oprah Winfrey Show will present a special live episode devoted to ending distracted driving. In conjunction with the episode, Harpo Studios is mobilizing communities to take action at "No Phone Zone Day" viewing rallies to be held in Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

Oprah show partner stations -- WSB-TV Channel 2 in Atlanta, WCVB-TV Channel 5 in Boston, WXYZ Channel 7 in Detroit, KABC ABC7 in Los Angeles, and WJLA ABC7 in Washington, D.C. -- will support the rallies in their respective markets. The planned rallies will bring together victims' families, elected officials, advocacy organizations, parents, youth, and law enforcement to discuss best practices and steps to limit distracted driving in their own communities. In addition, a new "No Phone Zone" public service announcement campaign will be showcased on today's Oprah show.

A working coalition of transportation safety organizations will come together as part of "No Phone Zone Day" activities and viewing rallies across the country -- including LaHood and the U.S. Department of Transportation; the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration [NHTSA]; the Governors Highway Safety Association [GHSA]; the National Organizations for Youth Safety [NOYS]; FocusDriven; SADD [Students Against Destructive Decisions]; RADD, the Entertainment Industry's Voice for Road Safety; and more.

In addition, "No Phone Zone" corporate partners Sprint, General Motors/Chevrolet and Liberty Mutual will lend their support -- both for national "No Phone Zone Day" and in the coming months to spread the "No Phone Zone" message.

As a national call to action, all viewers and town hall participants will be asked to take the "No Phone Zone" pledge. By pledging, drivers agree to make their car a "No Phone Zone" and refrain from using their phone while driving, eliminating distractions from incoming calls, texts or e-mails.

To date, more than 160,000 people have signed Oprah's "No Phone Zone" pledge at Oprah.com. Many celebrities have already joined the cause, including Oscar® winners Sandra Bullock, Jeff Bridges and Mo'Nique; comedian Jerry Seinfeld; actress and icon Raquel Welch; Olympic superstar Shaun White; country music's Lady Antebellum; entertainer and entrepreneur Tyler Perry; the cast of TV's Glee; plus many more.

A 2008 NHTSA study indicated that, at any given moment during the daylight hours, more than 800,000 vehicles are being driven by someone using a hand-held cell phone. According to a 2005 study for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety [IIHS], drivers are four times less likely to get into accidents serious enough to cause injury when they turn off their cell phones while behind the wheel.

For more information on "No Phone Zone Day," and to take the No Phone Zone pledge, please visit www.oprah.com/nophonezone.

For additional information on distracted driving, visit http://www.distraction.gov/.

About Harpo Studios
Harpo Studios is the home of Harpo Productions Inc., the most successful production company in daytime talk, producing the No. 1, award-winning The Oprah Winfrey Show and syndication's latest success, The Dr. Oz Show, as well as having developed Dr. Phil and Rachael Ray.

Harpo Productions creates and develops original TV programming for primetime, syndication and cable television, and operates Oprah.com, a premier lifestyle website. ZoCo Productions LLC, an affiliate of Harpo Productions Inc., and Sony Pictures Television co-produce The Dr. Oz Show.

Harpo Print LLC and Hearst Magazines publish the monthly O, The Oprah Magazine publication.

Harpo Films produces feature films and, through an exclusive deal with HBO, scripted television programming.

Harpo Radio Inc. produces Oprah Radio [XM channel 156, SIRIUS channel 195, as part of its "Best of XM" package] on SIRIUS XM Radio.

A joint venture between Oprah Winfrey and Discovery Communications, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, a multi-platform company, will debut in January 2011 in approximately 80 million homes, on what is currently the Discovery Health Channel.

ProsperNOW's Take
Hooray for Oprah, to devote such significant broadcast time and creative resources in order to help get drivers to simply hang up their phones and focus on their task at hand: driving!

Has your company or organization signed Oprah's No Phone Zone pledge? If not, please do so now: http://bit.ly/BizNoPhoneZonePledge.

And then, of course, see that all of your personnel -- e.g., interns, sales reps, delivery persons, independent contractors, executives -- and family/household members practice prudent, common-sense driving habits.

Stay safe out there!

SOURCES: Harpo Studios, IIHS, NHTSA
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Why You Will Absolutely Fail in Trading If You Don't Master This...

There are many misconceptions about money management. Most think it means trading with stops -- but that is only a small part of it. Below is an excerpt from a dynamic complimentary report, titled "How to Safely Double Your Profits in 2009 Trading ETFs." This little tip alone could save your trading account...

Why use risk controls? Every trader/investor must guard himself against drawdowns -- i.e., the percentage drop in his account size after one losing trade or consecutive losing trades.

For example... Imagine that, after losing a few trades in a row, your $20,000 account is reduced to $12,000: that would be a drawdown of 8,000/20,000 = 40%. If I were to ask some new traders, "In order to be back up to $20,000, what percentage return do you need to generate?" Many would answer, "Since I lost 40%, I have to make back 40%!" This couldn't be more wrong!

Note that, after losing 40%, the trader now starts with a lower base: i.e., to undo the $8,000 loss, the return he needs to generate is 8,000/12,000 = 66.6%!

The more severe the drawdown, the harder it becomes to undo the damage -- as shown in the numbers below:

DRAWDOWN % ... % REQUIRED TO GET BACK TO BREAK-EVEN
10% ... 11.1%
20% ... 25%
30% ... 42.8%
40% ... 66.6%
50% ... 100%
60% ... 150%
70% ... 233.3%
80% ... 400%
90% ... 900%

That is why all professional money managers only risk 1-2% per trade. It's because, no matter how good your trading system is at some point, it is a statistical fact that you will have 10 losers in a row. Based on risking only 1-2% per trade, this is only a 10-20% drawdown and easily recovered.

A full 99% of the hyped-up trading and investing courses in existence don't say or do this. They say risk 5-10% per trade. It is wrong, and will cause you serious financial pain if you follow their advice.

Many of them also use arbitrary stop-loss advice. For example, they say, "Place your stop at $100.10 because that is on the other side of a major support or resistance, trend line, MA, etc."

This makes your risk based on the size of the stop. That is also wrong, because the risk can be too large and it's not the same risk on each trade.

Others reverse this and say, Risk only 2% total, period, and let that determine your stop. This is also wrong, and will hurt you because it is important to have the correct technical stop.

The answer is to do both. Use a percentage and technical stop together.

It works like this: Let's say the technical stop is $100.10. But, based on your entry price, that is a 3% risk. Since your plan calls for a 2% risk, you simply lower the number of shares you are trading. This lets you stay within your 2% risk and have the correct technical stop. This is exactly what most professional money mangers do.

Some say that this will lower their profits, because of trading fewer shares. So what! Study the numbers above again.

You know the old quote, "More risk equals more reward." Well, it's not always true. Sometimes more risk equals more risk! If you lose your money, you have no chance to make a profit. Even losing 50% is disastrous, because you would then need to make 100% to get back to even.

As Warren Buffet says, There are only two rules in investing. Rule #1: Don't lose money. Rule #2: Don't forget rule #1.

I'd like to add a third rule: Correct money management and position sizing must be mastered to ensure your long-term success.

The good news is that it is easy to have correct money management and position sizing. I just explained how to use a combo of a percent [%] stop and a technical stop. If you want more of an explanation, please visit the Free Videos area on this homepage, and click on the "Why have risk controls" article/video title.

The system of entries, stops and profits-taking is only half of your key to success. The other half is money management. If you get this part wrong, you will lose your account every time -- regardless of how good your system is.

Click link below for the free newsletter on how to safely average 6% per month trading Exchange Traded Funds [ETFs]:

==> http://budurl.com/nvp2

P.S.: In order to access the powerful F>R>E>E videos, you must first opt-in for the complimentary report.
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