Dog Knees and ACSI Money

Interesting day so far. That necessitates an interesting Title.

First off - I'm pretty sure my 93 lb yellow lab needs ACL surgery. This would be her second in the last 4 years. Yes, that's right - the other knee this time.

This poor beast has worse luck than a third round center from Georgetown. She was running around the yard with her pup-older-brother and the yelping started. We got her into the vet this morning and they have her now - they're leaning toward surgery needed. Apparently it's pretty common for mid to larger dogs. Didn't think it was this common. So I'm thinking to myself as my wife gives me the call "there goes the vacation fund" as these surgeries and the associated rehab (yes, there's rehab for doggy surgery - water tank treadmills no less. I wish I was making this up). Then I go into a meeting with a potential partner and the trip to North Carolina may not be sunk just yet.

Anybody familiar with the American Customer Service Index?

It's basically a group that rates customer satisfaction of major corporations done through the University of Michigan which makes use of a algorithm designed by Klaus (Schwab? - not sure I caught the last name correctly) and owned by ForeSee Results, to give folks an idea of how happy the consumer world is with an organization's execution.

So what does this have to do with my dog's knee surgery? Here's where it get interesting. Apparently the guy who came up with this algorithm is some sort of financial/math/etc genius. He developed a hedge fund based on companies within the ACSI ratings. Those on the rise he bought stock in, those falling he sold short - made a pretty penny. It has typically outperformed the stock market since it's inception.

So we're going to take the vacation fund and put it all on this! No, not really. I would like to do a trial run on some of the stocks and see how it works before dropping real money on it. Anybody have a free "try your hand at investing" site I can try?

My vacation may be saved! My dog thanks you, and my family thanks you in advance.