In case you're wondering what kind of a weird name Cheburashka is, it's a name of a very popular and cute Russian cartoon character you can see here. My real name is Igor. OK, you're going to have to trust me on this one.

After graduating from Cornell University, I've been working as a software engineer mostly in New York brokerages. My previous jobs have ranged from designing phone service features for a major telecom to designing intranet to financial modeling. Currently, I'm involved in designing, building and supporting trading, clearance, and risk management systems for one of the trading desks of one of top US investment banks.

So I've gone from learning finance academically (while taking some MBA courses), to on-the-job (different things to learn all the time), and to, finally, hands-on: I've been an active investor for over five years now. All these experiences have provided me with a lot of opinions and advice, which I hope to share at Epinions.

I also love traveling and try to express a lot of my opinions in travel category. Books, movies, and computers will likely to get their portion of reviews as well.

My better reviews

Financial Websites Your First Second Opinion, on Morningstar Good Tool if Used Right, on Island Customizable and Complete, on Yahoo Finance

Financial Advice Credit 101 for college students and recent graduates, on Establishing Credit Options 101: The Rigorous Introduction, on Options Trading 101 Start early, on 401K, Roth and Traditional IRA

See all my Personal Finance reviews (Expert)
See all my Travel reviews
See ALL my reviews

How I rate reviews

I'm not trying to be difficult. A well written, thought through opinion will have nothing less than Recommended rating from me. Of course, I'm like most people, so make sure you talk about details.
Details make all the difference. Why exactly did you or did you not like it? What did you try doing? What problems have you encountered and what did you do about it? What have you found interesting? Why?
If you presented you point of view very well and gave me some details, that's an HR rating.

If a review is incoherent, poorly presented, has logic flaws, or is full of spelling errors and typos, it shows a certain lack of commitment and respect to the Epinions community. A rating of SR is all you can count on from me.

Any kind of spam, plagiarism, or use of offensive language have no place on Epinions and will have my wholehearted NR rating. Irrelevant reviews will follow the suit.

If I find a factual mistake in a review, I will post a comment, and if it's not changed, I will not likely rate this opinion very high, either. In general, I'll try to comment on all my ratings that do not exactly fit any description above. I try to rate all reviews I read, and I never hide my name. And I would appreciate it if my readers would give the courtesy of using similar guidelines when rating my reviews.