If you are forced to evacuate from a major category hurricane, which is approaching a shoreline near you, perhaps you should consider that you will want to call your broker and have definite points at which the stocks you own will be sold if they go down or if they go up. Consider if you will that you may be out of touch from your broker and your stocks or mutual funds for a while.

If you are an online trader you may not have immediate Internet access for a long period of time. Without the ability to check on your portfolio or manage your mutual funds or make a trade with your stocks it might be better if you were in cash and out of the market during this time period on the most risky parts of your portfolio.

If that is not possible you need to make arrangements with your broker in order to ride things out in more ways than one. Hurricanes do affect the stock market and can affect your mutual funds in an adverse way.

Consider if you will that oil prices could go up significantly if the Gulf Coast of the United States of America is hit again with the major hurricane of large category like it was during the 2005 Atlantic tropical hurricane season. Depending on the diversity of your stock portfolio this could be a significant problem for you and you have a chance of losing a lot of money if you do not plan ahead. Please consider all thisse in 2006.