This week was an emotional rollercoaster for investors. The volatility was probably embraced by traders, but I’m sure it wasn’t easy for them either. I can say for a fact that although I made out ok, there were times where if I didn’t act quickly, I would have been in trouble.

The news is saturated with Hank Paulson’s $700 bailout plan. This is diverting attention away from the increasingly bleak outlook for the wider economy.

Rick Pendergraft says no bailout can immediately solve the problems in the housing market. And all indicators suggest these will run well into 2009 at least.

Wall Street is on its knees this morning. Lehman Brothers (NYSE:LEH) is out for the count. Merrill Lynch (NYSE:MER) has been sold for a song. And AIG (NYSE:AIG) is living on borrowed time after its stock was pummeled in Friday’s going.

Worse still, according to William Patalon III the wider US economy is sliding into a deep recession.

The U.S. Treasury Department finally stepped up to the plate over the weekend and seized control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The nation’s largest mortgage lenders have had implicit federal backing as government sponsored enterprises (GSEs).

Are ETFs a lazy man’s investment? Not so, says Dan Denning in The Daily Recknoning Australia. Although investing in ETFs often means ‘passively’ tracking an index rather then picking a good stock, ETFs carry a number of distinct advantages.

With key countries in the world economy spiraling toward recession, and even India and China panicking about domestic inflation levels, there’s one country in particular that still seems to offer good value in its equities markets, thanks to an economic outlook that combines decent growth and only modest inflation.

Increasingly in recent weeks commentators have begun speculating about the dreaded “S-word”- stagflation- and whether or not such a protracted period featuring both high prices and high unemployment would blight the U.S. economy.

Thanks to a growing wave of commodities exchange traded funds (ETFs), investors now have many options for participating in the current commodities bull market.

http://www.tradingaddiction.blogspot.com/

Down $196

About once a week I like to run through about 200 of the most liquid ETF's to get a better sense of the market. A good picture of the market can be painted by scanning through them so I thought I'd share my thoughts on what I'm seeing (in no particular order). What are you seeing?