Don?t bother taking an apple to school to give your favorite teacher, unless you want to leave it in front of a machine. The schoolteacher is about to join the sorry ranks of the service station attendant, the elevator operator, and the telephone operators whose professions have been rendered useless by technology.

The next big social trend in this country will be to replace teachers with computers. It is being forced by the financial crisis afflicting states and municipalities, which are facing red ink as far as the eye can see. From a fiscal point of view, of the 50 US states, we really have 30 Portugals, 10 Italys, 10 Irelands, 5 Greeces, and 5 Spains.

The painful cost cutting, layoffs, and downsizing that has swept the corporate area for the past 30 years is now being jammed down the throat of the public sector, the last refuge of slothful management and indifferent employees. Some 60% of high school students are already exposed to online educational programs, which enable teachers to handle far larger class sizes than the 40 students now common in California.

It makes it far easier to impose pay for productivity incentives on teachers, like linking teacher pay to student test scores, as a performance review is only a few mouse clicks away. These programs also qualify for government funding programs, like ?Race to the Top.? Costly textbooks can be dispensed with.

The alternative is to bump classroom sizes up to 80, or close down schools altogether. State deficits are so enormous that I can see public schools shutting down, privatizing their sports programs, and sending everyone home with a laptop. The cost savings would be huge. No more pep rallies, prom nights, or hanging around your girlfriend?s locker. Of course, our kids may turn out a little different, but they appear to be at the bottom of our current list of priorities.

The Old School Marm Will Be Sorely Missed

The performance of the Mad Hedge Fund Trader?s Trade Alert Service is still going ballistic, reaching the heady height of 59% for the year.

I know some of your saw your faith challenged when, at one point, the stock market was looking at five consecutive down days last week. The red ink all disappeared when the November nonfarm payroll delivered shockingly positive numbers, thus delivering one of my best up days of the year.

Including both open and closed trades, 24 out of the last 26 consecutive Trade Alerts have been profitable.

The Trade Alert service of the Mad Hedge Fund Trader is now up 59.76% in 2013. November came in at a stunning +11.58%, while the December month to date record now stands at +3.68%.

The three-year return is an eye popping 114.77%, compared to a far more modest increase for the Dow Average during the same period of only 32%.
That brings my averaged annualized return up to 38.3%.

This has been the profit since my groundbreaking trade mentoring service was launched three years ago. It all is a matter of the harder I work, the luckier I get.

I took profits on my long position in Citigroup (C), which just achieved a major upside breakout, and then rolled the capital into the Financials Select Sector SPDR (XLV). I cashed in on a short position in the Treasury bond market (TLT). I?ll go back in on the next rally. I also took profits on short positions in the Japanese yen as it approached new lows for the year, then doubled up again on a subsequent rally there.

I caught the entire 10% move up in Apple (AAPL) with a major long position. Higher levels beckon. My remaining long positions in the Industrials Sector Select SPDR (XLI) are contributing daily to my P&L, thank you very much. An aggressive position in the Japanese online giant, Softbank (SFTBY), also turned profitable, playing on the Japanese economic revival.

This is how the pros do it, and you can too, if you wish.

Carving out the 2013 trades alone, 74 out of 89 have made money, a success rate of 83%. It is a track record that most big hedge funds would kill for.

My esteemed colleague, Mad Day Trader Jim Parker, has also been coining it. Since April, his own performance numbers have just come back from the auditors, revealing that he is up a staggering 279%.

The coming winter promises to deliver a harvest of new trading opportunities. The big driver will be a global synchronized recovery that promises to drive markets into the stratosphere in 2014. The Trade Alerts should be coming hot and heavy. Please join me on the gravy train. You will never get a better chance than this to make money for your personal account.

Global Trading Dispatch, my highly innovative and successful trade-mentoring program, earned a net return for readers of 40.17% in 2011 and 14.87% in 2012. The service includes my Trade Alert Service and my daily newsletter, the Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader. You also get a real-time trading portfolio, an enormous trading idea database, and live biweekly strategy webinars.? Upgrade to?Mad Hedge Fund Trader PRO?and you will also receive Jim Parker?s?Mad Day Trader?service.

To subscribe, please go to my website at www.madhedgefundtrader.com, find the ?Global Trading Dispatch? box on the right, and click on the lime green ?SUBSCRIBE NOW? button.