The warning signs are not all flashing red just yet but investors would do well to head these 10 signs that suggest that the markets may drop further and prepare their portfolio before the crowd flocks to the exit.

It seems logical that a scary, destructive terrorist attack, particularly one that implies more attacks to come, would be bearish for stock prices - but has that actually been the case?

As a gold bull I want to believe that gold is going to start moving higher from here, but unfortunately I think the odds remain stacked against this, and that we will see further downside before the bull market resumes. I will first go through the reasons why I think this is the case and I will then discuss how to play this.

Hardly anyone thought the Fed would fulfill their plan to stop monetizing the country's debt - and absolutely no one thinks they’ll succeed if they do - but the Fed is acting like it’s serious. The Fed has stopped adding and started subtracting - the money supply is falling - but will this cause the stock market to begin to tank like it did on the last two attempts causing the Fed to relent?

12 short months ago, the immediate future looked like a lock yet 2014 turned out to be a pretty good year for the powers that be and the economic theories that animate their behavior. 2014 should not have happened, but it did, and now the sound money community is left trying to figure out what it missed and, crucially, whether what happened refutes the sound-money/gold-bug case, or simply delays it. This article has the answer.

This one seems like a no-brainer. The government or the central bank prints more bonds, notes and bills, and prices for things go up in response. Gold is real money, so it must fluctuate along with the inflation rate. It’s basic physics but it doesn’t happen that way. Let’s examine the history of inflation and the precious metals since the low of the Great Depression.

It would seem logical to say that peace allows companies to focus on manufacturing goods, providing services, innovation and competition, all of which helps the overall economy but does peace, in fact, have anything to do with determining stock prices?

Macroeconomic news supposedly explains only about one fifth of the movement in stock prices but if there is no accommodating theory, then the presumed causality involved is tenuous at best. Let me explain.

Q: Is it correct to assume throughout that an expanding trade deficit impacts the economy negatively? A: No, the relationship, if there is one, is that there has been a positive -- not negative -- correlation between the stock market and the trade deficit. Let me explain.

A sensible story of causation regarding oil prices and stock prices made by countless economists is that "rising oil prices increase the cost of energy and therefore reduce corporate profits and consumers' spending power, thus putting drags on stock prices and the economy." Stunningly, as far as I can determine, however, no evidence supports that claim, as the discussion below will show.