greenfaucet

It's more of a mathematical curiosity than anything else, but check out the odds of 14 successive up-days below, the record for which looks to get set by the SPY today. If that's not a pot of leprechaun gold for the bulls on this St. Pat's day, I don't know what is!

Not only has the homebuilder sector received attention lately (investors often monitor this sector to assess the health of the economy via home purchases), the chart of the XHB Homebuilder SPDR ETF is showing a very interesting pattern that's worth a glance.

A first look at the current actively-managed ETF landscape featuring all of the actively-managed ETFs currently trading.

Michael Pento talks about the false perception of safety in the USD.

Great look at the technical prospects of the gold ETF (GLD) by technical whiz Corey Rosenbloom.

Great technical piece on crude oil by technical whiz Corey Rosenbloom.

Good piece on Legg Mason's role in the emerging landscape of actively-traded ETFs.

Great piece on portfolio (modern) theory and what investor's should be focused on to achieve "true" diversity.

This past Tuesday, the flagship S&P 500 stock index (SPX) surged 6.4% in its biggest daily rally since rocketing out of its panic low in late November. Gold, which was flat that morning, suffered increasing selling pressure as the day marched on. As the SPX strengthened, gold weakened in an inverse linear fashion.

The S&P market broke down last night invalidating Tuesday's buy setup and at the same time confirming that the bears are in control. Normalized volume expanded with the down move and market closed in the bottom 25% of the range - showing strong bearish conviction.

A scenario favored by many analysts is that a new bull market commenced last November. This view will undoubtedly gain traction if the stock market continues to strengthen over the next few months (as we currently expect), but it has almost zero chance of being proven right...

During late 2008's unprecedented financial-market panic, gold got something of a bum rap. Since this metal didn't soar during the stock chaos like most of its investors expected, many assume something must be wrong in gold-land. But gold ultimately did hold its own, up 2.1% in Q4 while the S&P 500 plunged 22.4%.

During the very heart of the stock panic...

This week, we've looked across the New Year's divide to recapitulate and prognosticate (with a little hip-hop back beat, that title could become a rap classic, no?). After looking at exchange-traded products (ETPs) tracking gold on Wednesday ("2008 Was Golden ... Barely"), Thursday's focus ("A Real Commodity Moneymaker") was the ELEMENTS S&P CTI ETN (NYSE: LSC).

As we close out a rough year and get started in 2009, one can hope that the worst is behind us and that corporate restructuring coupled with Federal government stimulus will be enough to give the U.S. economy—and by extension the world economy—the firm foundation it needs for recovery.

Much has been made over the Obama stimulus package to boost infrastructure spending to create jobs. While the plan may boost the sector over time the challenge is investors blindly jumping into positions they have no foundation or research to justify. That of course is my opinion and bias coming out from all the years of advising and talking to investors.