A tightening cycle by the Fed does one thing every time: slow our economy and end up in a stock market crash. History tells us this and if you haven't taken action yet, you may be running out of time. Here's what you can do to protect yourself:

According to RBS, the global financial markets are already showing signs of significant stress and the conditions are similar to those of the months before the Lehman crisis in 2008. Their advice is to ‘Sell everything’ and brace for a ‘cataclysmic year’!

What does the average trader think during a rally and the following sell-off? Here it is in graph form.

Most every shopper, except most common stock shoppers, are excited and appreciative when they see merchandise they want selling at a bargain price. Why is it that common stock investors seem to hate it when their stocks go on sale?

If imports and exports are both falling, that means consumption is weak pretty much everywhere, and weak consumption means slow or negative growth which means lower corporate profits, which, if history is still a valid guide, means less valuable equities, so could it be that the markets are simply figuring this out and revaluing assets accordingly?

Don’t tie your fortune to a rising market – and I mean any kind of market anywhere on the globe. This is a time to think strategically, stay hedged and diversified, and avoid big directional bets. I think active and hedged management will be the place to be in the coming period. To quote the motto of House Stark in Game of Thrones, winter is coming...

China is only becoming more indebted, even as its economy slows down. By 2014, China's total debt reached $28 trillion, according to McKinsey & Co. That is roughly half the world's entire debt. In this article we show what's happened to Chinese debt and why people are starting to worry about it.

The following are my best economic “guesses” for the coming year, based on the statistical and technical data trends, for the market, interest rates, the dollar, employment and the economy.

For all the information the following charts convey, it is not unfair to suggest price is likely to go lower, nor it is unfair to expect anyone armed with this knowledge to be disappointed that gold and silver are not going higher, for now.

The motto “In God We Trust” has appeared on U.S. coins since 1864 and began being printed on paper currency in 1957 but now another lawsuit by a prominent atheist has been filed in an effort to have the motto removed from all U.S. currency.