When taking a step back and viewing longer-term gauges, we see warning signs flashing. Many of these readings are in extreme territories, and historically bear markets have occurred from such overbought positioning. We are all cued up for a bear!

...When the USD starts to rise many assume that this is negative for paper gold ETFs such as GLD as well as physical gold. I'm sure you have heard it before, if the USD goes up then gold goes down, and vice versa...but, in reality, this "rule of thumb" isn't the case and, in actuality, it would be impossible for the USD and gold to trade inversely with each other. Let me explain.

There have been many econoblog posts of the form, "ha, ha, the people predicting inflation have been wrong so far, when will they give up?". Let me try to explain why we know high inflation is coming eventually.

Recent research has determined that there are significant degrees of happiness among Americans depending on what cities and regions of the country they live in and that, in particular, those living in cities with declining populations were exceptionally sad.. This post provides a make-up of the research and a map of the U.S. illustrating the various degrees of happiness - or unhappiness - by area.

What happens when gold has transitions from a cyclical bull market to a cyclical bear market? What motivates gold to enter a bull market phase? This article has the answers.

With valuations stretched, investors seem to be justifying their stock purchases here with the argument that we have yet to reach the mania of 1999-2000 but history has shown us that there doesn't have to be a bubble for there to be a sharp decline in stocks. As we saw in 2007, it doesn't mean there is no risk of a significant market decline or that valuations are compelling and that investors should be expecting above average long-term returns from here. They should not.

It never ceases to amaze me just how dumb and misinformed financial commentators are, often looking in all the wrong places for script, when the fact is that stupidity, greed, and stubbornness runs rampant amongst paper market gold speculators.

I read hundreds of financial articles every week and most are nothing more than "financial entertainment" - unfounded forecasts, fear mongering or cheer-leading. That being said, there are a number of articles that are absolutely MUST READS if you are to become an informed investor and be in position to understand what is evolving in the financial environment and act accordingly. Introductory paragraphs and links to a number of them are provided in this post.

How safe is the cash in your wallet? Just as with hard currencies such as dollars and pounds, the safety of your bitcoins depends on your own vigilance. If you are thinking about using Bitcoin, or already are, this infographic outlines the security concerns and how to go about alleviating them.

Statistically speaking there is an optimal time to buy or sell a security and knowing such, or at least knowing when not to do so, would be quite beneficial to your financial health. This article provides the answers as to what are the best months, and work its way down to half-hours of the trading day, to engage in trading.