Finance

• The Death of the Mutual Fund

  ETF’s are much more attractive than mutual fund competitors, with their notoriously bloated expenses and spendthrift marketing costs. You can’t miss those glitzy, overproduced, big budget ads on TV for a multitude of mutual fund families. You know, the ones with the senior couple holding hands walking down the beach into the sunset, the raging bulls, etc? You are the sucker who is paying for these. Sometimes I confuse them for Viagra commercials. I once did a comprehensive audit on a mutual fund, and a blacker hole you never saw. There were so many conflicts of interest it would have…

• Investors Will Win the ETF Price War

  Many hedge fund traders are unhappy about the current near monopoly enjoyed by the top three ETF issuers, Black Rock, State Street, and Vanguard, which control 83% of the market. At last count more than 1,100 ETF’s were capitalized at more than $1 trillion. The result has been grasping management fees, exorbitant expense ratios, and poor structural designs, which create massive tracking error. The good news is that new entrants are flooding into the ETF space, and the heightened competition they are bringing will help curtail the worst of these abuses. This development will accelerate the demise of the bloated…

• The Effects of Rising Global Food Prices

  Food prices are shooting up to levels last seen back in 2008, when foodstuff inflation hit populations around the world. If present trends continue, though, some consumers might find themselves looking back on that earlier era with nostalgia. Economist Joachim von Braun, director of the Center for Development Research in Bonn, Germany, says the world could be facing a new era of expensive food. "The best forecasting models for the long run, for the next few decades," von Braun says, "are that we may have to face 50 percent increases in grain prices by 2030 and further increases, up to…

• My Take on the Euro

  Entering 2011 as the currency that everyone loved to hate, the Euro has staged a dramatic comeback, much to the chagrin of hedge fund managers and traders alike. Since January, the troubled currency has rallied ten cents from $1.28 to $1.38. Is this the beginning of something big? Or has it shot its wad and headed for a spill? I vote for the later. The euro is essentially winning the best deck chair on the Titanic contest, the fastest horse at the glue factory, and the prettiest girl at the ugly ball. It’s really all about interest rate differentials. At…

• Free Financial Content for All Websites and Blogs (Free Widgets)

  OilPrice.com has just released 20 Free widgets for Finance, Energy and Commodity related websites and blogs. The tables and charts available cover almost all energy and metal sectors: Gold, Silver, Crude Oil, Coal, Nat Gas, Copper, Aluminium, Solar Energy, etc... There are also Government and Consumer Debt figures. (At present there is nothing else like them available) For anyone who runs a website or blog in the business, finance and resource sectors this widget page is a must see. All widgets are very well designed and the data provided would normally be very difficult to obtain and especially difficult to…

• How Far Will the Market Fall?

  Now that we are solidly in “RISK OFF” mode, traders, managers, and investors are asking how much downside we are looking at. It is safe to say that those who were piling on longs with reckless abandon are now potentially staring into the depths of a great chasm. I have included charts below showing the important Fibonacci support levels. Let’s take a look at how far down is down. *1,300 – The first big figure. Already broken intraday, but it held the first time. *1,286 – The 50 day moving average, the no brainer, most bullish target. The “buy the…

• 4XP Wins World Finance Award for Best Trading Platform in Western Europe for 2011

  Feb 15, 2011, London Stock Exchange – 4XP rises above the competition to win World Finance’s prestigious annual award for most innovative trading platform.This seal of approval from an esteemed and established financial institution, was earned by 4XP due to its ongoing efforts to create a supportive and easy to use trading platform suitable for traders of all types and levels. The vast arraignment of trading options combined with a unique live dealing room sets 4XP’s trading platform from all others. The traders’ ability to use both online and mobile platforms for all intents and purposes provides a most convenient…

• A Rest for the Treasury Bond Sell Off

  The Great Treasury Bond Sell Off, which has been running now for nearly six months, may be about to take a rest. Take a look at the chart below put out by my friends at StockCharts.com. It shows that the iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT), the single leveraged long ETF, is bouncing off the old resistance line that we saw on the upside last April. One of the oldest and dustiest rules in any technical analyst’s handbook is that old resistance usually becomes new support. You can’t see the inverse on a chart of the double short…

• Money and Reserves

  I wanted to offer some clarification on stories about all the money that the Federal Reserve is supposedly printing. It depends, I guess, on your definition of "money." And your definition of "printing." When people talk about "printing money," your first thought might be that they're referring to green pieces of paper with pictures of dead presidents on them. The graph below plots the growth rate for currency in circulation over the last decade. I've calculated the growth rate over 2-year rather than 1-year intervals to smooth a little the impact of the abrupt downturn in money growth in 2008.…

• The Collapse of the Yen: The Big Break is Near

  “Oh, how I despise the yen, let me count the ways.” I’m sure Shakespeare would have come up with this line of iambic pentameter if he were a foreign exchange trader. I firmly believe that a short position in the yen (FXY) should be at the core of any hedged portfolio for the next decade.To remind you why you should hate the Japanese currency, I’ll refresh your memory with this short list: * With the world’s weakest major economy, Japan is certain to be the last country to raise interest rates. * This is inciting big hedge funds to borrow…