Featured Trades: (FINANCIAL REFORM), (GS), (MS), (CBOE) Financials Select Sector SPDR ETF   1) Financial Reform has More Holes than Swiss Cheese. Whew! That was close! After 18 months of threats, saber rattling, and posturing about the demise of the competitiveness of the American banking system, we finally have a financial reform bill, although it [...]

Featured Trades: (PWER) 2) Trolling for Bargains in the Alternative Energy Space. I am always on the lookout for interesting alternative energy plays and stumbled across one the other day. Camarillo, CA based Power-One (PWER) is in one of the world’s largest producers of power conversion and management devices, which are going to play a [...]

Featured Trades: (HOWARD RUFF), (GLD), (SLV) SPDR Gold Shares Trust ETF 3)  Business is Booming at “Ruff Times”. Following Howard Ruff for the last 33 years has always been eye opening, if not entertaining. The irascible Mormon is the publisher of Ruff Times (http://www.rufftimes.com / ), one of the oldest investment letters in the business, [...]

Featured Trades: (FXI) iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index ETF 4) The Tea Leaves for China Look Ominous. The truly significant move in the capital markets last night was the atrocious performance of the Shanghai market (FXI), which plunged 3.4%. The index is now off more than 30% in the past 14 months, and 21% this [...]

'The housing sector is going back into the tank'”there is no doubt about it. Bank credit is in free fall,' said David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff.

Featured Trades: (SILVER), (SLV) iShares Silver Trust ETF   1) Why Silver Could Outshine Gold. The latest round of risk reduction by global hedge funds bashed silver (SLV), knocking $2.50 off of the $19.50 high seen in the heady days of May. Today we have made it back to $18.67, indicating that the white metal [...]

Featured Trades: (POWER IN CALIFORNIA), (EIX), (PGE) 2) Your Power Future is in California. California has a long history of making great leaps to push the envelope on standards, like seat belts, catalytic converters, emissions, and mileage, which are then adopted nationally and globally. It looks like it is going to be no different with [...]

'You always see people making ridiculous forecasts for Apple, and they always come true. They just constantly invent new customers with everything they come out with,' said Steve Grasso, head floor trader at Stuart Frankel.

Featured Trades: (‘V’ SHAPED RECOVERY), (YCS) Proshares Ultra Short Yen ETF 1) A Grim Week for the ‘V’ Crowd. Even the most optimistic permabulls have to be rethinking their scenario after looking at writing on the wall that is so obvious, they can see it with their own blinkered, tunnel visioned eyes. First, the nonfarm [...]

Featured Trades: (FXA), (EWA) Currency Shares Australian Dollar Trust ETF Australia iShares ETF 2) Australian Dollar Owners Make a Killing. Those who took my advice to buy the Australian dollar at the $.80 handle (click here for the call) are no doubt now shopping for the next vintage Ferrari to add to their collection, a [...]

Featured Trades: (ANALYST RATINGS) 3) There Are No Gurus. If there was ever an argument that you should rely on independent newsletters for guidance about financial markets, such as The Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader, and not traditional brokerage houses, take a look at the chart below from JP Morgan. It shows that [...]

Featured Trades: (GENERAL PETRAEUS) 4) The Spotlight Moves to Petraeus. I have not been called a war criminal for at least 35 years. But that's what was screamed at me when I muscled my way through a crowd of chanting anti-war protesters on my way to a briefing from General David Petraeus, Commander of the [...]

'The banks are effectively zombie banks, because their consumer and commercial assets are not growing and their fee businesses are getting crushed. You're looking at very low return vehicles,' said Meredith Whitney, CEO of the Meredith Whitney Advisory Group.

Featured Trades: (TAXES INCREASES) 1) The Only Certainty in Life: Taxes are Rising. If you are looking for irrefutable proof that we’re all screwed, take a look at the chart below from my friends at Clusterstock. It shows that $2,000 in tax increases will be needed per household to cover increased government social service spending [...]

Featured Trades: (NEE), (PGE), (ALTERNATIVE ENERGY) 2) A Peek at Your Energy Future. If you want to get a preview of what an electric power utility of the future looks like, take a look at the old Florida Power and Light, which has reinvented itself as Nextera (NEE). Its shares have morphed from the high [...]