RE: Educated trades on RCU.
There is also quite a bit of help [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/market/ratings.cfm]here[/link], and [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/forumid_63/tt.htm]here[/link].
Also, changing usernames does not affect your post count. It will always follow along. The typical way the number is reset is deactivating your membership and then starting a new one later.