Investing

Tungsten is unique in its extremes. It’s extremely hard, heat resistant, dense, and environmentally benign. It’s used to make cemented carbide, one of the strongest and most durable compounds. That's the positives. but, unfortunately there are negatives too. Take a look at the infographic below for more information.

"The way precious metals are now diverging from global stock markets can only mean one thing. We are in the early stages of a fear event. As the fear of insolvent banks and broken government promises grows, people will increasingly move out of paper assets of all types and into physical gold and silver.”

The Swiss franc is pegged to the euro at 1.2 EUR/CHF (Chart 1) so if the euro keeps going lower and lower against other currencies, the Swiss franc will do the exact same thing. However, if Switzerland were to de-peg the Swiss franc from the euro, there would be a tremendous upside in the Swiss franc. [That being the case, how can one best profit from such an eventuality?] Words: 265

With the Presidential vote now just five months away on November 6, many investors are beginning to debate which candidate may be best for the stock market. Recent history serves as an instructive guide to determine whether a second Obama term or a new Romney presidency might be better for investment markets over the next four years. [Read on!] Words: 1400

Every day now there is Media and Internet commentary on the current prices at which gold mining stocks are trading. Some of this commentary is excellent, some seems to be written from a "vested interest' perspective and some is very simplistic. [This article discusses unstated underlying assumptions that some commentators base their views on, endeavours to provide a greater understanding of the gold 'mining' sector and influences on pricing of sector stocks and what investors need to do before investing in said sector.] Words: 2030

We use crude oil for everything from running our cars to making plastic. The need for oil causes conflicts and gives power to those countries that have an abundance of it. Taking all this into account, not too many of us actually know how it’s priced. A lot of us hear how much it costs per barrel or get mad when prices go up at the pump but what’s the method behind the madness? Hopefully, I can shed a little light on the process. Words: 790

Based on my technical analysis gold will drop to $1,450/oz. before the end of May and then go parabolic in the next C-wave to $3,950/oz. Below is a chart of how I see the price of gold unfolding over the next while.

There’s clearly a lot of fear in capital markets around the world and that’s usually represented by a rush to short-term government bonds, in particular US dollar government bonds. With this type of fear and the need for liquidity, just about all assets get sold and gold is one of those assets. If you have a longer-term view, however, and you believe these problems will be met with additional liquidity, then gold is something you should accumulate.

As investors become more and more worried about the world economy...it makes sense to us to look into stocks that held up best in periods of market decline. Managing risk is as important as reaching for return. One aspect of managing for risk is the past behavior of particular stocks in negative market periods. Toward that end, we identified four key, recent down periods for the S&P 500, and identified those liquid stocks that were in the top quartile for price return in each of those four periods, and did at least as well as the S&P 500 index in the 2008 crash period. [Take a look!] Words: 620

So far, the decline in the market has been fairly orderly; no panic, no hysteria to get out - even the VIX has remained calm [but] I wonder how much longer the decline will continue to be orderly. Frankly, there's something eerie about what's happening and, to be honest, what's happening is almost beyond analysis. I have nothing to compare it with....I really have to go on my intuition and instinct at this point - and my instinct is to get in cash.