Many individual investor trade on hope, fear, greed and gloom instead of strict self-discipline. How many can sell without having remorse as the share price goes higher? How many have it in them to sell at loss without hoping for a rebound?

Well, SmartStops.net helps investors do just that. While there are many advice sites for individual investors available today, this one seems sorely needed by many. It helps investors place easy, set-it-and-forget-it stop-loss orders to ensure profits don't fizzle into thin air. If you want to sell at a specific price without sitting around watching share price movement in real-time all day long, this site can help.

But it isn't just some automatic sell trigger. SmartStops.net has employed proprietary algorithms to make sure investors are advised -- well in advance -- of when to sell a stock or exchange-traded fund to ensure investing remains successful. At the conclusion of each trading day, SmartStops.net sends an email with stop points for both short- and long-term investing strategies on the stocks and ETF it covers.

The good news is that there is a free trial available from the company, and it's also in the process of partnering with online traders like TD Ameritrade to synchronize SmartStop with brokerage accounts.

It's worth checking out if you're into control of your own portfolio, but want the process to be taken care of at least semi-automatically. Besides, we all like a one-year free trial, right?

AFXNews reports that Thornburg Mortgage Inc. (NYSE: TMA) has defaulted on a credit agreement with one of its banks. That's because it could not come up with $28 million it owed JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM). Specifically, Thornburg needed to pay JPMorgan -- to whom it owes $320 million -- the $28 million for a margin call.

According to The Associated Press, the notice of default from JPMorgan triggered cross-defaults "under all of the company's other reverse repurchase agreements and its secured loan agreements." According to MarketWatch, Thornburg has been facing margin calls due to a 15% drop in the value of mortgage-related securities in early February.

Margin calls are a common response from investors when securities purchased with loans rapidly lose value. If they fall too far too fast, they may hit triggers that require the issuing company to either shore up their position or sell off additional assets.