Economy
Spain Loses AAA (ZH)
Consumption flat in April (ER)
Greek panic pushes gold prices to $1700 (SHTF)
Auto sales dependent on 0% financing (USA Today)
iPad mania in the UK (Breitbart)
Politics
Government passes more stimulus, more deficit spending (ZH)
Obama was supposed to be competent (WSJ)

Though my investing & trading experience is limited to less than 10 years, which is much less than many other veterans, I’ve decided to compile a basic list of “investing laws” that I’ve come to observe over the years.  I hope you find the list helpful.
1. The market is not a free market – As an individual investor, you don’t have the same advantages of Wall St firms.  There is definitely some level of manipulation in the market and even if it’s not blatant manipulation, with the majority of the …

China “reassured” the global economy that they had no intention of unloading European debt.  While the market on Thursday responded to this by jumping a few hundred points on the Dow, I believe people are overreacting somewhat to this “good news”.
If you hold a significant chunk of an asset, say some European debt, would you announce that you plan to sell it before actually selling it?  Obviously by announcing your intentions, you would result in many other parties attempting to sell before your do.  The obvious result would be a …

The following article is a re-post from Expected Returns, re-posted with permission.  It is an excellent article with an angle on gold that you don’t hear enough.  Enjoy and be sure to check out the author’s blog as he offers some great economic insight and opinion.
As I’ve mentioned repeatedly in the past, gold is perhaps the most misunderstood asset in the world. Try to explain to people the true nature of gold and expect to be greeted with petulant disdain. It took more than a little arm twisting for me …

Despite a year’s worth of headlines regarding the recovery and “green shoots,” it seems that quantitative easing (QE) in the near future is still on the table.   Yes, of course that makes sense.  A Fed official has said if the US experiences a bad downturn, it might be necessary.
If you’re unaware of what QE actually means, let’s look at some information from Wikipedia:
The term quantitative easing describes a form of monetary policy used to increase money in an economy when the interbank interest rate (in the US, this is called …

Despite being massively skeptical of the stock market over the last year, I still have more long positions than short positions (dividend stocks, gold stocks), so as the S&P crept over 1200 and the upside momentum started to fail, I put some downside protection in place.

FXP – UltraShort China ETF – I’ve actually been holding this for about 2 months and is starting to really pay off as the Chinese market has rolled over – Chinese market and US markets are pretty much up and down together although the timing …

Pictures are worth a thousand words…
6 Months S&P Chart (SPY)
The above chart shows just how fast the market can give up gains that are built over time.  Essentially, the last 6 months have been erased in 2-3 weeks.  A few lessons or reminders for today:

The market is unpredictable
Pretty much everyone is wrong when they predict the market – don’t listen to them
Don’t buy into stock euphoria – be patient instead
It’s probably good to ignore day-to-day markets
Dividend-based cash flow should be your focus when investing
The market often moves fastest when investors …

It’s sad how many Americans are dependent upon a high stock market, praying each night that the markets don’t tank because the ramifications would be enormous for you.  Today’s market is crazy.  It’s volatile, unpredictable, and possibly even manipulated.  The winners over the last decade have been the financial planners and Wall St while Americans stash away every dime they have into stocks hoping for outsized gains, while the “experts” rake in fees and win no matter what the market does.
While investing in stocks is a great idea, I completely …