At this mature stage of a cyclical bull market, it’s important to avoid allowing your hubris to go haywire - to believe you’re just so damn good that your next goal should be to “beat an index.” I offer 3 ways to let you keep yourself in check - to avoid losing your ass - as markets eventually revert to a mean.

Much is written these days about the trials and tribulations of the economic miracle of China - but most is totally ignored. Take a moment to read these introductions to a number of such articles. You might find some of them well worth the time to read and reflect upon.

Staying ahead of inflation is hard enough but even trying to tread water, to stay even with inflation, becomes extremely difficult when you have the lead weight of inflation taxes around your neck, pulling you down.

There is a common notion that stocks, at least if held for a long-time, outperform other assets [and, as such,] should be the cornerstone of any long-term portfolio. [While that is indeed true,] it is best to focus first on how much you are able and willing to lose (i.e. what risk you are able and willing to bear) when determining the optimal allocation for your portfolio. [Only] then [should you] think about what potential investment returns you might be able to capture. [Let me explain.] Words: 1503

Here are the predictions of all the pundits on record as to how high and how soon (with rationale as to why) gold is expected to go before the bubble bursts.

Do you know who actually drinks the most beer in a year? As Oktoberfest rolls around, we decided to find out. Take our interactive globe for a spin to see the top 50 beer-drinking countries.

Where the gold skeptics have their argument wrong is their belief in the almighty dollar. If the U.S. dollar crashed then gold prices would undoubtedly surge as the only credible rival safe haven currency, except perhaps the Swiss franc and the crashing of the U.S. dollar is not an unrealistic expectation. Let me explain.

Silver has gone through many phases over the past 5,000 years making it the most dynamic of all precious metals as this infographic so clearly illustrates.

Silver is very difficult to find and is typically mined as a byproduct in polymetallic deposits with a variety of other metals including lead, zinc, gold, and copper yet was mined as the primary metal 29% of the time in 2013. This infographic illustrates which are the biggest silver mining countries and those companies that produce the most.

Though the river of gold market analysis runs wide and deep on the Internet, precious little of that content is devoted directly to the most basic rationale for gold ownership. Here we fill that void in chart form – a quick reference for the first-time investor.