Having spent the last week on holiday I've had some time to reflect on just how fickle the world of online investing can be. I haven't had full access to the internet but even so I've learnt that several programs I'm involved with are finding it difficult to weather many of the challenges that they are encountering. As most of them are private the only one I can really reference is Fantastic Pay as they still have a relatively public profile.

It appears that the original premise of investments are suffering from failure by one of the parties. If this is confirmed at the end of March then the investment plans will have to be re-structured. What this probably means is that returns will be reduced although the announcement on the Fantastic Pay forum did state that the period for both Plans 1 and 2 would be honoured and given the performance of the company to date I would accept this as a reasonable expectation.

Also, the company is beginning the roll-out of Apple Pie Real Estate in Canada and the USA. Currently existing members are in pole position for the various membership levels that are being offered. It does appear that the opportunity will be opened to non-members in a few weeks.

I transgressed there slightly but I'm still confident that Fantastic Pay have a lot to offer even with the troubles they are facing. The major point for me though is that no matter how legitimate an opportunity appears to be there are still may uncertainties that come into play to knock things awry.

Another opportunity I'm invested with has suffered from increases in withdrawals over some months leading to the trader having problems in being able to operate effectively. This then starts a spiral of mistrust with members and can lead to eventual meltdown. To his credit the admin is promising to make good losses and whilst I believe his intent there is always a significant risk that disgruntled members will create an atmosphere in which whatever the trader tries to do the bad apples will have soured any potential.

I'm an optimist so I look for the positive in all my dealings. Some people may consider this foolhardy but at least I always operate on the basis of using money that is not needed for life's essentials so I am in somewhat of an enviable position and hopefully my toughing it out will pay off...only time will tell.