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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.

No two countries are alike as the ranking of 12 of various attributes of the major countries in the world show below.

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?

News events from the Crimean Peninsula have increased paranoia in the mainstream financial press and certain corners of the internet [that Russia, in response to any economic sanctions implemented by the West, might engage in some form of retaliatory financial warfare.

With both the fundamentals and the technicals saying the stock market is a risky place to be, we await its crash back to reality. Here's why.

Many of those who observe the daily news reports are beginning to figure out that they are being fed misinformation and that neither political party truly represents them or, for that matter, is even concerned for their welfare. Those folks are now navigating in the dark and, as the Great Unravelling progresses, they are being caught unawares and unable to even understand what has occurred, let alone take action to save themselves. [This article attempts to enlighten such individuals as to why such events are unfolding and what the eventual - inevitable - consequences will be for them unless they]..educate themselves and prepare an alternative life.

Every time the number of, or specific constituent, companies change in the Dow index any comparison of the new index value with the old index value is impossible to make with any validity whatsoever. It is like comparing the taste of a cocktail of fruits when the number of different fruits and their distinctive flavours – keep changing. Furthermore, because of the application of the ever changing Dow Divisor, we are always comparing a basket of today’s apples with a basket of yesterday’s pears.

Copper has just met the lower resistance line of its descending triangle pattern and should it break through that resistance the price for copper could fall like a stone. That, in turn, would have a MAJOR "watch out below" impact on the future level of the S&P 500. Let me explain.