Investing

Oftentimes perception, and not reality, rules the day with the thousands or millions of speculators placing short term bets with assets like silver. These perceptions are particularly strong given that paper players in the silver market often control the price in the short term (6-8 months), since there is so much more paper silver than physical metal out there...Here are five common myths about silver that I bet many speculators still believe are true. Words: 1638

I'm not going to candy coat it for you: making serious money in the stock market is a ton of hard work. It takes patience, savvy, and a certain level of market smarts - and the cold, hard truth is that if you don't have them, the big boys will drain your portfolio dry. Unfortunately, those are the three areas that most retail investors need to work on the most. Otherwise, they will simply end up in a cat-and-mouse game where they are the mice. Don't fool yourself for one second into believing that your "due diligence" can be done by watching a show or two on CNBC. It just doesn't work that way but if there is one voice from the markets that should grab your attention every time you hear it, it belongs to Dennis Gartman, founder and author of The Gartman Letter. He's sort of a guru's guru. [Here is] a glimpse into how he views and trades the markets. Words: 1061

The average annual equity return for individual investors has been 60-65% less ( 6-7 percentage points less), over a twenty year period, than the performance of the indices that everyone assumes reflect investor returns! In spite of such a dramatic under-performance that fact is being ignored because it is not useful to academics or investment companies - but I would think it is of interest to YOU! Words: 729

Over the past few years, pretty much every investor has become familiar with gold. The shiny precious metal has surged in price and has managed to hold strong while broad indexes have slipped, highlighting its appeal as a diversification agent and safe haven investment. This has prompted many investors to ramp up their allocations to the space in order to take advantage of these favorable trends and lead their portfolios to broad gains...[but] there are a number of other issues that investors need to be aware of when considering allocating capital to the space, as there are several reasons to avoid the precious metal from an investment perspective. Below, we highlight seven reasons for why investors may want to temper their expectations for the metal and consider a more diversified approach that doesn’t include such a large allocation to the ‘barbaric relic’. Words: 2030

[The fact that] the top 1% has prospered incredibly while the bottom 99% have been screwed royally is supported by countless data. New data show this is a global phenomenon and that even in the worst of economic times the wealthiest make out like the bandits they are, and there are a lot more of them than 1%. [Let's take a look at what the data actually says.] Words: 781

Have you been wondering how commodities will fare in November? [Below is a chart of] how select commodities performed in the past 25 Novembers (since 1986). Words: 489

34% of Americans say gold is the best long-term investment, but how many of that 34% actually own it in the form of coins and bullion? No one has that figure, but my guess would be less than 1% of the total population, and when global investment demand doubles or triples (or more) from current levels -- a distinct possibility -- and you paint a whole new picture for gold. You begin to understand why gold is not in a bubble at all but, in fact, is in a long-term secular bull market that is still amassing considerable potential energy. Words: 1092

Will our National Debt be trillions higher than today in a few years? If you think the answer is yes, than buying physical gold today is a good idea. It’s that simple. Just look at the chart. Words: 140

Seasonality tells us that statistically the months from the end of October through the end of April are in fact the best months of the year for investing while the six months from May through October (the “sell in May and go away” strategy), are the worst but is there any validity to what’s sometimes known as “the Halloween indicator?” [Let's take a look.] Words: 460

For the past decade gold has been "catching up" to the amount of money (M2 and M3) in the system to make up for understatement of the gold price due to U.S. price fixing on its way to an inflation-adjusted value of approx. $2,300 - and that is just the beginning. If, and when, we see a release into the market of the trillions of U.S. dollars being stored on balance sheets of banks, companies, and other countries around the world then the price of gold should explode upward. Let me explain why that would be the case. Words: 850