Free Investing

IndexUniverse submits: By Dave NadigMatt Hougan's ETF portfolio sure is cheap, but is it actually the best? I get it Matt, ETFs are cheap. But all sorts of things are cheap that don't necessarily deserve praise. McDonald's Happy Meals, Yugos and your barber all come to mind. While I applaud you tracking just how cheap a diversified portfolio one can make with ETFs, consider the other side of the coin—the access to actual good ideas you can get with ETFs.Complete Story »

MyPlanIQ submits:There is an easy to understand strategy that can lead to high returns with low risk. If you have a portfolio with the correct asset classes represented, over the long term, you will get better results at a lower risk than picking the latest and greatest fund or stock. This is not the bleeding edge of new ideas. This is proven and widely used – being the basis of most money manager’s strategies. MyPlanIQ created SIB portfolios (Simpler Is Better) – market index funds from key asset classes that can be used to measure historical returns to show the impact of asset class selection rather than fund or stock selection. SIB portfolios for different numbers of asset classes are built and used to benchmark returns. From this, conclusions can be drawn as to what is an effective investment strategy for today.Complete Story »

T. Marc Schober submits:The rural economy continues to grow and is at the strongest position in the last two years due to higher farmland prices, rising farm equipment sales, improving retail sales, and continued confidence. The improving conditions are partially offset by limited access to capital and concerns about the new financial reform bill.The Rural Mainstreet Index (RMI) declined in June to 52.6 from May’s 54.3, but this is the first time in more than two years that index was above growth neutral 50.0 for two consecutive months. Creighton University economist Ernie Goss said, “After 26 consecutive months of below growth neutral readings, the overall index has now moved above growth neutral for two consecutive months.”Complete Story »

Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit:
Below we highlight our trading range charts for ten major commodities. For each chart, the green shading represents between two standard deviations above and below the commodity's 50-day moving average. Moves above or below the green shading are considered overbought or oversold. Oil has bounced off of oversold levels in recent days, but it is still closer to the bottom of its trading range than the top. Natural gas, on the other hand, continues to surge higher, and it is now trading well into overbought territory. Gold remains in a strong uptrend, and it is pretty close to the top of its range. Platinum really sold off sharply when equity markets took their dive, and it is just now starting to recover. Silver is just about in the middle of its range.Complete Story »

Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit:
Below we highlight our trading range charts for ten major commodities. For each chart, the green shading represents between two standard deviations above and below the 50-day moving average. Moves above or below the green zone are considered overbought or oversold. As shown, oil and copper both moved into oversold territory over the past couple of weeks as global equity markets pulled back. Conversely, gold and silver moved higher to overbought territory. Platinum remains in an uptrend and is currently right in the middle of its trading range. Natural gas, corn, and wheat remain in long-term downtrends, while coffee and orange juice have been moving sideways lately.Complete Story »

Hao Jin submits:Comparison between 1970s and Today The following table and charts show that 1970s is the closest analogy to today's market:Complete Story »

Sandeep Daga submits:Business survey indices released last week showed expansion in manufacturing activities – from Japan, China, UK, EU to U.S. – at a multi-year high pace in some places. Rising prices of base, ferrous and minor metals and rapidly recovering international traffic is testimony to this. A few things worth noticing here: firstly, external reasons have magnified the impact of recovery in demand into prices. Zinc, lead, aluminium and nickel stocks are at multi-year high despite recent draw-downs. However, price recovery in aluminium and nickel took support from a financing deal creating an artificial shortage at a time when demand started recovering; zinc and lead struggled.Similarly, steel prices are being boosted more by rising Iron Ore prices than by demand. Secondly, not all idled capacities are back on-stream. Those are, however, rapidly coming on; a typical supply-demand lag. Thirdly, Chinese imports of metals is trending quieter as the rest of the world recovers; a smooth transition that most of us have craved. Fourthly, in contrast with rapid industrial recovery, the service sector struggles in the west and is cutting jobs, yet. This makes the proponents of both “V” and “L” shaped recovery proven correct – depending on where they look.Complete Story »

Hard Assets Investor submits: By Lara Crigger With China canceling U.S. soybean shipments, and national corn and wheat stockpiles hitting all-time highs, the fundamentals are looking dicey in the ag markets right now. But there are still opportunities to be found, says Tom Fernandes, director of operations for GreenHaven, LLC.Complete Story »

Tom Lydon (ETF Trends) submits: Investors love commodity exchange traded funds, and with good reason. Aside from the usual benefits that ETFs offer, commodity funds deliver the kind of exposure to commodities that would otherwise be very challenging, very expensive or both. But not all commodity funds are created equal, and one of the most important types to understand are those that hold futures contracts. One of the most popular commodity ETF types are those that hold and trade futures contracts for the underlying commodity. Futures are a promise to buy or sell a commodity for a set price on a date that’s in the near future. None of the ETFs that hold futures contracts claim to track the spot price of their respective commodities. [4 Commodity ETF Types.]Complete Story »

Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit:
The stock market is up about 65% since the 3/9/09 low, but oil has actually outperformed stocks over this time period with a gain of 72.64%. Below we highlight the performance of ten major commodities over the last year. As shown, copper is up the most with a gain of 108%, while orange juice ranks second with a gain of 101%. Of the three main precious metals, platinum is up the most at 50%, followed by silver at +33.73%, and then gold at +22.16%. Even natural gas is up since the March 9th, 2009 low with a gain of 16%. Wheat and corn are the only commodities shown that are down over the last year. Corn is down 11%, while wheat is down 18.27%.click to enlargeComplete Story »