In the investment management process...[it is important to] actively monitor both short- and long-term cycles...in order to manage expectations based on historical patterns...[as well as] oscillators - diagnostic tools that help us measure a security’s upward and downward price volatility - but to understand how oscillators work, though, you first need to become familiar with standard deviation and mean reversion. In this article, we do just that.

Financial markets are influenced by relatively predictable cycles and should play a big role in one's decision-making process just as they do in our day-to-day lives. This article takes a look at several and discusses their relevance to one's investment management process.

There is an idea floating about to stimulate the economy via providing cash directly to consumers. It may just be a trial balloon at this point, but I expect the idea to gain traction. Here's why.

Canada is seen as the new banking safe haven and an “island of safety and stability” because of its perceived sound fiscal position, commodity wealth and solid economic performance - but it's a myth! Plain & simple. Here are the facts.

Investors commonly assume that rising interest rates adversely impact the gold price, and vise versa. They believe that a rising interest rate environment is indicative of a strong economy, which is supposed to drive investors out of gold and into the stock market. They further assume that investors will want to exchange their gold, which has no yield, for stocks and bonds, both of which have yields and generate income but this intuition is unfounded. Let me explain why that is the case ans why, as such, gold investors shouldn't fear rising interest rates.

Frankly, we cannot conceive of a more cataclysmic set of circumstances for both the global economy in general, and the gold Cartel specifically, than currently exist. Act now, before “traders” return from summer vacations next week or you may be locked out of the most important “protection trade” of all time!

For 1000s of years much of the Middle East has held some of the world’s greatest concentrations of wealth. To outsiders it’s one big desert. To the insiders, it’s the ultimate gold - black gold!

Should the Fed raise interest rates at some point in the future, as is widely expected, such higher interest rates might bring far worse consequences than can be achieved by simply staying the course. While some small, even token, rate hike would be tolerable, a return to historical norms could reap consequences in the general economy far beyond the direct effect on the federal government’s fiscal status. The fact is that the federal government is ensnared in a debt and interest rate trap of its own making from which it will be difficult to extricate itself.

Though the stock, bond and currency markets, at the moment, are preoccupied with the question of when the first interest-rate increase will happen, the real story lies in where interest rates are ultimately headed because that answer defines where stock, bond and currency prices are ultimately headed and the reality, dear reader, is that the Fed simply cannot — and will not — allow interest rates to crawl very high. Why is that you ask? Read on!

Eventually, all markets correct excesses. The global economy is near a tipping point, and we must prepare our portfolios now, ahead of that chaos, for a big payday which means owning a meaningful amount of physical silver in addition to gold. Let me offer 7 reasons why that is the case. Words: 1588