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There is a new share trading challenge starting next month and and the prize for the best stock portfolio performance is $50,000! It costs $49.95 to join but the cash goes to a good cause. The event is supporting Arthritis Australia which is seeking a cure to the ailment which plagues 1 in 5 Australians. When you join you start with $50,000 virtual money and allows you to trade any stock in the top 300 companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. The share trading challenge closes registrations on Friday close of business November 2nd and starts the following Monday 5th November and runs for the next four weeks or 20 trading days.

The Australian sharemarket as well as international stockmarkets have been in bull mode for a while. The twentieth anniversary of the 1987 stockmarket crash is today: October 19th. The Australian economy has seen four years of continuous growth. So what's going to happen to our booming Australian economy? What are all these signals telling us? Economic History 101 Did you know, today, Friday October 19th 2007 is the 20th anniversary of the history making, record breaking October 1987 market crash. Back in the 1980s global stocks and the Australian economy were booming after the early 80s recession, economic reform ad deregulation and re-rating of shares as a result of lower inflation. Australian shares nearly doubled in a year to the September 1987 high which was strongly supported by entrepreneurial stock gains. The American stockmarket peaked a month earlier in August. On October 19th the US stockmarket fell 20 percent and the Australian market followed the trend dropping 25 percent on the next day's trade (October 20). From pre-crash highs to their lows, the American stockmarket fell 35 percent and the Australian sharemarket fell by 50 percent. It took the USA stockmarket two years to recover and surpass previous highs while the Australian sharemarket took a little longer to recover: it only surpassed highs made in 1987 in February 1994. Image: Article with Image: Full Size Image occupying Whole width of Column Image Caption: Booming Australian Economy