CREDIT CARDS: Starwood (SPG) Moves with American Express

Canadian Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card by American Express

After being a die hard Starwood Preferred Guest and using my no fee SPG credit card via MBNA, I’m sad to announce that it has come to an end. SPG has decided to move with AMEX, where the customer service will be great, but the rewards will be less. American Express has decided that it needs to charge customers a $120 annual fee for the same rewards we would of received at MBNA. Clearly this was a business decision on SPG’s end and not a move to help their customers.

Canadian credit cards are going to become more difficult to choose now, simply because it seems like every company is forcing annual fee’s and rediculous interest rates. The new interest rate will be 19.99% with AMEX. How they justify such extreme interest rates and annual fee’s is beyond me. But only we are to blame for this mess.

Here are some notes on the new American Express (AMEX) Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) credit card:

 The Pro

• $1 = 1 point, the same rate as MBNA’s SPG card
• Free weekend night after $40,000 in annual purchases
• Automatic upgrade to Gold Preferred Guest after $30,000 in annual purchases
• 10,000 welcome bonus points
• TRAVEL: Car rental & damange insurance, travel accident insurance, travel emergency insurance, baggage insurance, plus more.

The Con

• Removal of the 5000 point bonus for every $10,000 spent annualy, up to 15,000 bonus points
• $120 annual fee
• Mastercard is more widely used then American Express (MBNA was Mastercard)
• No more travel insurance, just regular insurance.
  

  Canadian MBNA Starwood credit card

All in all, you’d expect that that SPG would off their customers more for moving with American Express.  AMEX has higher merchant fee’s, annual fee’s, and they decided to offer much less then MBNA. There is no need to switch over with AMEX unless you like to be ripped off, they simply aren’t offering the same program as MBNA. It looks like us Canadian customers will have to look at a new credit card because AMEX SPG outright stinks.

You can visit any of their websites here:

Starwood Preferred Guest / American Express / MBNA Canada

Market Correction Still Coming

Wow, I’m a bit surprised myself that the S&P has stayed above 1160 for this long, in fact it hit 1185 which was my high point. At this point (1185), I’ve decided to start shorting the SPY and build my short on the QQQQ, the further it goes up, the more I’ll short and wait for a correction. If the S&P hits 1230 before it hits 1115, all my bets are off and I’ll take the loss. I’m confident that will not happen.  Remember, the market is like an elastic, the more it stretches, the bigger the correction

Also, I’ve liquidated all my gold stocks and ETF’s until the correction takes place. The only commodity I’m still holding it physical gold.

It should be a great few weeks of trading for everyone following my lead. Enjoy!

Market Review: I’m Shorting QQQQ (Nasdaq)

In the last few weeks I’ve become completely liquid in gold, equities, and basically everything. The only stock I’m holding is POM (Pepco). POM is not a day trade for me, its a long term hold which I won’t look at for many years. When an old timer stock pays a 7% dividend in this market, you hold hold hold!

Now for the market, I’ve sold off everything around the 1175 on the S&P. I really don’t see the market surpassing 1185 until we go back to 1100 first. In fact, I’ve taken a small short position on QQQQ (Nasdaq index). If the market continues to move up, I’ll continue to build my SMALL short on QQQQ while I wait for a correction. It’s important to mention that my overall status is still a bull. The only reason why I’m shorting at this point is because I’m looking for a 50-75 point correction, nothing more. There is a small chance that we can go up to 1220 on the S&P and face a 100 point correction, but I find that highly unlikely. My bet is at 1175-85.

Happy trading everyone!