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Bonds catch a bid on a day stocks are stuck in the mud. Bond exchange-traded funds roared higher Tuesday, the first day the Federal Reserve stepped into the market to help keep credit flowing in the aftermath of the coronavirus-induced March market shock.

What is the biggest bubble of our day? In today’s Big Picture podcast, Jim Puplava explains how stock prices are being driven to record valuations as investors herd into index ETFs. This is a self-feeding frenzy, he states, where fundamental analysis doesn’t apply. Next, he discusses “Oil: The Coming Age of Volatility,” looking at the recent drop and why we are moving into an era of boom and bust. MP3 Audio Link Here

What Are ETFs? In the simplest terms, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are funds that track indexes like the NASDAQ-100 Index, S&P 500, Dow Jones, etc. When you buy shares of an ETF, you are buying shares of a portfolio that tracks the yield and return of its native index. The main difference between ETFs and other types of index funds is that ETFs don't try to outperform their corresponding index, but simply replicate its performance. They don't try to beat the market, they try to be the market. ETFs have been around since the early 1980s, but they've come into...

For decades, ordinary investors with modest sums to invest had limited options. With even low discount-broker commissions making a big dent into regular investments from typical paychecks, individual stocks were largely out of reach, leaving actively managed mutual funds as the primary alternative. Through active funds, money managers got used to the idea of taking 1% off the top on an annual basis, regardless of whether the funds they managed produced gains or lost money for their shareholders. Index mutual funds have been around for 35 years, but they largely coexisted peacefully with active funds throughout most of that time....

Hendry's 'China Short' Fund Makes Big Returns Published: Monday, 12 Dec 2011 | 9:08 PM ET By: Sam Jones, Hedge Fund Correspondent Shorting the credit of companies positioned to do badly from a Chinese slowdown has proved to be one of the hedge fund industry’s most successful trades of 2011. Hugh Hendry, the outspoken U.K. hedge fund manager known for his bearish, often contrarian views on the global economy, has seen his ‘China short’ fund rack up gains of more than 52 percent so far this year, investors have told the Financial Times. The gains compare to a loss for...

I'm looking to diversify my portfolio into something relatively safe. I'm thinking that no matter how bad things get people are still going to need to eat. Most will still want to brush their teeth, wash their clothes and put gas in their cars or mopeds depending on how bad things get. Any low-cost mutual funds or ETFs that specialize in companies that provide bulletproof essential services? I have some Vanguard Index funds now and wouldn't mind moving some out while the market is still relatively high. Thanks.

Intensifying social unrest in Egypt battered markets worldwide Friday. iShares MSCI Turkey(TUR) led the global selloff and tanked nearly 7%. It broke below its 200-day moving average — a bearish development — to its lowest price in six months. Market Vectors Africa Index(AFK) and iShares MSCI South Africa Index(EZA) both crashed nearly 5% to four-month lows. Market Vectors Egypt Index(EGPT) fell 4.4% for a 14% loss for the week. It’s the largest one-week loss since it started trading 11 months ago.

Investor Fund Flows Have Never Been This Bearish Since Lehman Collapsed Vincent Fernando, CFA Jun. 6, 2010, 8:45 AM It's a bit of a surprise that stocks didn't fall further. The last four weeks were actually the worst 1-month outflows since Lehman collapsed in 2008, as shown below in red: From a fund flow perspective, investors in mutual funds have now pulled money out of U.S. stocks during 2008, 2009, and now year-to-date in 2010. To us this should be read as a substantial contrarian indicator. The investor panic was enormous during the last four weeks, and on a multi-year...

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In today’s Guest Blog spot, I decided to contact Chuck E. Cash from Forex-Trading-School.com. I wanted to get his thoughts and insight on what he thought about the current commodity markets, with Crude and Gasoline as the specific targets. Take a look below and enjoy! ========================================================= It’s hard not to notice the rally cries coming out of the political parties lately. Each side has their “solution” for the energy problem. The left wants windfall profit taxes and investigations. The right wants a tax holiday and more drilling. Lately I’ve been wondering, are the spat of energy ETFs partly to blame?...