What would the optimal portfolio allocation in gold have been according to Modern Portfolio Theory over several different periods of time? This article has a look at how an investor could have combined gold and equities to enhance risk-adjusted returns.

History clearly shows there is a direct link between inflation and gold demand. When inflation jumps, or even when inflation expectations rise, investors turn to gold in greater numbers. When gold demand rises, so does its price and you can guess what happens to gold stocks. Below is a look at the extent of consumer purchases after inflation (and in some cases hyperinflation) took off in a number of countries.

While I know this is tough to hear, as most of you are gold bugs, I am confident that the banking cartel has a purpose, and that purpose is to set up what will probably be one of the most lucrative long side trades in the metals of this entire secular bull market. Our job right now is to be patient and wait for that yearly cycle low later this summer. I think that low is going to drop at least down to retest $1200, and if the cartel has its way, they will push gold back to $1050 before this is over.

Is the latest credit-balance trough a definitive warning for U.S. equities? In this article we examine the numbers and study the relationship between margin debt and the market, using the S&P 500 as the surrogate for the latter.

Investing in natural resources and precious metals is attractive today because the sector is so much cheaper than it was three years ago. Many of the stocks are trading at a 90 percent discount to their prices in 2011. For a contrarian investor, I believe that we are seeing a historic opportunity now.

Tell us where in the charts below there are any indications that the “true” value for gold should be in the $5,000 – $10,000 per troy ounce range, or silver in the $100 – $300 range. If you see extraordinary bullish signs within them, let us know, because we certainly keep looking and cannot find any needle in these “haystack” charts!

How would you feel if you went to the store to buy something, and someone rushed ahead of you and high purchased it first and then sold it to you at a higher price? Well, in the financial world this happens millions upon millions of times. In fact, this practice has become so popular that it has spawned an entire industry known as "high frequency trading".

After intensive consultation with his advisors, President Obama has decided to modify the formula used for calculating the Dow Jones Index. On January 1, 2015 the Dow Divisor will be changed to 30. The result of this change will be that the Dow Jones Index drops from the current 16532 points to about 85.8 points. The underlying value of the …

Since gold is physical liquid money and oil is an essential commodity for the economy, it is normal that they correlate negatively in real prices. When the economy goes well, demand for oil increases, whereas demand for gold diminishes. However, if inflation hits, the nominal prices of both assets increases at the same time with inflation

Most American households are making less money than they would have 14 years ago with adjusted dollars. It begs the question, what is happening with America’s middle class? Why is there a decline?