"Stocks in the Spotlight" "Who we are" & "What we do"! The Stocks in the Spotlight newsletter was first published in 1990, and has been designed for the "active" investor When I first became a stockbroker, October, 1981, I was of a different crop, always wanting to follow many different price ranges of stocks and technical charting. I learned quickly that most brokerage firms wanted stockbrokers to have a narrow vision and a "do-as-told" loyalty. Still, I kept my independent thinking the entire time as a broker, until resigning in December of 2000, almost twenty years later. As the years progressed I became an "Options Principle" for a major "Wire House" (a brokerage firm with seats on the major exchanges), a "National Sales Manager" responsible for the hiring and training of stockbrokers and the hands on management of the trading desk used by the same brokers. I also ran my own branch office for several years. I have extensive experience in all aspects of trading stocks to include: Stock & Index Option trading; Trading & Market Making of small stocks; Initial Public Offerings (IPO's) for new companies; Advertising, paper form and Internet; Consulting to younger public companies; and, equity strategy. I have a solid understanding of how stocks trade, what events may cause stocks to rise, or fall, and the many consequences of the quantity & quality of average daily volume. I have great knowledge of the short market in low priced stocks, a trait I find is understood by only a few. Although, the Stocks in the Spotlight covers stocks of all price ranges, I realized there was very little help for investors when needing assistance in the small stock arena. Small stocks do offer the possibility of strong, and some times unbelievable returns. I have witnessed many mistakes made by start up companies, as to the type of advertising the company chooses, to the type of Investor Relations (IR) it decides to use. In many instances it is because of these mistakes that we may advise against certain companies, as far as purchasing the shares. By design, the Stocks in the Spotlight is about offering investors a way to make honest decisions, based on honest reporting and research, as well as assist the many new companies that are attempting to find the proper way of exposing their stock to the investment community. We understand there are times a larger IR firm is needed and there are time when a smaller one will work better. Much of this concept has changed due to the explosion of the Internet investor, no longer to be forgotten and growing by the millions. As a matter of fact, on-line investors have grown to represent almost 85% of the possible buyers in a small company stock. Not only are we attempting to reduce the mistakes made by investors, we are also attempting to reduce the mistakes many small companies make when trying to gain investor awareness. The Stocks in the Spotlight (SitS) was born in January of 1990, published by J.R. Budke and edited by with B.G. Santos. B.G. Santos responsibilities include conducting research for the writing and publishing of Stocks in the Spotlight web site. At first, it was an eight page "monthly" newsletter sent to paid subscribers until approximately mid 1998 when it became an Internet only website. As the Internet wave came upon us, the way the markets did business started to change. This change created a way to reach so many more people than ever before. We could easily see the future was the new Internet stock market. The idea behind our format is to offer information on the stock market and on a variety of stocks, mostly on a technical basis, but still heavy on fundamentals. The Stocks in the Spotlight believes in concentrating on stocks that offer a stronger opportunity to provide a greater percentage of return, on the risk part of your investment capital, than on the more conservative stocks, regardless of price on many choices. There are two different markets covered by the Stocks in the Spotlight, the more well known companies, stocks with trading ranges and a fair amount of information available, and the smaller newer companies that offer new ideas, products and markets. You may read about a company like IBM, or Novell, right along side a lower priced more unknown stock, because we have been following these companies for years. We use the long and short term trading range on these old favorites, along with current fundamentals, to know when to buy, hold or sell. We followed enough stocks over the years that there is usually something we like in any market, but if we are not able to find a stock we like, we will say so. The "Special Situation', "Closer Look" and "Spotlight" are our highlighted favorite choices for the current condition of the market. They cover companies in all price ranges, new and old, high priced or low, that we feel are worth investing. We also feature a top choice at the beginning of our Current Up-Date, posted weekly. Our "Stocks to Watch" offers a recent updates on a wider base of stocks we have covered in many case for years, while our "Current Up-Date" is much more narrow and covers more immediate decisions. This section is updated and e-mailed to our membership base as needed. Our basic concept is to assist investors and public companies with an opportunity to learn together We have made our site a free site so that you may come and go as you wish. Our idea is to use sponsorships and marketing programs to cover the cost, so the Internet surfer does not have to. You will find many different ways of looking at indices, while surfing the site, of which we hope you enjoy. I tend to use "discounts to the high" as a tool in many of our charts, as I feel knowing where it has been is just as important as knowing where it is going. You will find reference to the SPREAD all through the site. This is an index I designed myself in 1990. It charts the Value Line index against the New York Stock Exchange index (using our own equally weighted formula). These two indices cover a wide range of the largest U.S. companies and offer a view at the entire market with a comparison between big OTC stocks and New York listed stocks. We wish you a pleasant visit and offer you an opportunity to become a member by clicking on the link below. There is no charge to become a Spotlight member. We only require a name, an email address and a state. This information is held confidential and we do not give this information to anyone. We wish you the best of luck on all your investments! Sincerely, JR Budke spotlite@thespotlite.net www.thespotlite.net 209.383.4647 MEMBER LIST Click here to join our list and receive stock information via E-mail There is no charge to be a member of the Stocks in the Spotlight Contact Stocks in the Spotlight