Investing

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.

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 …

History is testament that there exists monumental probability (76% to 100%) that 2014-2016 will witness impressive gains for Gold, Silver and Precious Metal Equities…across the board. Below are charts of 8 different forms of precious metals assets that show that Golden Crosses are a fait accompli or are about to experience imminent completion thus heralding an immediate new Bull Market and that the forth-coming secular bull markets in all forms of precious metals may well far surpass the forecasts herein stated. The focus of the following analysis is to prove the predictable accuracy and timing of the The Golden Cross.

Once the temporary effects of past & current manipulation of the price of gold subsides we will have a continuation of the bear market in the Dow Jones and a continuation of the bull market in gold. If the secular cycle repeats, we can conclude that the Dow Jones will be priced at an ounce of gold or even less.

Since the U.S. stock market still appears to be trying to make up its mind which way things will go from here, this appears to be as good a time as any to expand on the idea of using the VIX to "buy the freaking dips."

It’s frustrating to see key stock indices keep pushing higher when historically proven market indicators are all warning of a crash ahead. Irrationality is exuberant to say the very least, and that’s why I believe this rally is counting its last days.

Following the 2007-09 financial crisis, many investors decided they needed insurance on their portfolio to protect against the possibility of another “black swan” event and poured money into a host of new funds that were supposed to help if there was another downturn — long/short funds, tail risk strategies, absolute return funds, option hedging strategies, tactical asset allocation funds and the like - but they missed the idea completely. They were trying to plan ahead for uncertain events that could surprise everyone. Of course this is impossible, because you can’t hedge out the risks of unknown events - they’re unknown after all. So how should an investor protect oneself from another such occurrence? The answer is below.

There are so many articles - good and bad - available to read on the internet it is impossible to read them all. Many go under the radar because either the title of the article (an extremely important component) is insufficiently catchy to garner one's attention or, on the particular day they are posted, other articles come to the fore. Below are 8 - still very timely - articles you probably missed.

There is little the United States can do militarily to change the outcome in Ukraine...but this does not mean the United States is helpless. No sooner had the Russian invasion become clear than the White House announced the possibility of economic sanctions against Russia....By implementing such sanctions, the United States has moved in the direction of a new kind of warfare — not kinetic war involving ships, planes and missiles — but financial war involving cash, stocks, bonds and derivatives. The policy question, and an important question for investors, is how far can this type of financial warfare go and how effective can it be? What will the impact of financial war be on markets in general and investors in particular?