We often get questions from readers about the criteria we use when considering positions in a market. Because of that, we decided to release our best insights in this article in line with what we believe are actual market conditions. To illustrate that, we have included recent charts and data points. Read on!

How much consumer debt is too much? Today’s infographic uses extensive data from Equifax to try and answer this question.

‘Peak Gold’ is happening and it is very positive for gold and gold mining shares. a long term positive for the market which will support prices and should lead to higher prices. The following 5 charts tell it all.

What are fractals, what causes them, and how we can use them to improve our trading? It's a subject worthy of a lengthy research paper, but hopefully this article and the following excerpts to whet your appetite to read the full article will be a good introduction.

The U.S. gold reserves create intrigue and controversy due to their claimed size, and also because the U.S. gold stocks have never been physically audited and verified by a entity independent of the U.S. Government. [This article highlights what little is known about the U.S. Government's policy and provides links to articles on the policies of Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Russia & Austria.

Consumers are the foundation of the U.S. economy and today's chart plots data (reflecting median spending, and adjusted for inflation) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for 12 different consumer categories over a period of nearly 75 years to show the changing way in which Americans spend their money.

I recently revisited the fascinating tactic Professor Sheena Iyengar of the Columbia Business School proposed at BlackRock’s recent Retirement Roundtable in New York to help investors save more for retirement [and what she proposes is easy to implement, and extremely effective].

Interest rates have bottomed and will rise substantially during the next decade OR interest rates won't rise because rising rates would crash governments, economies, derivatives, equity markets and more.

I’ve always said that personal finances are more important than portfolio management, but I still think there’s probably not enough people writing or providing education on the topic so I’m going to make a concerted effort to write more about personal finance in the coming year and, to that end, here’s my list of 20 personal finance rules:

Neither the White House nor the CBO have adequately considered the real impact of the very deficits they themselves are projecting. While they admit the deficits will be off the charts they fail to connect the dots from that admission to its obvious natural consequences — no fewer than FIVE ominous, vicious cycles.