'We've seen the S&P 500 drop 50% twice in the last decade. That is the new normal', said Richard Kang of Emerging Global Advisors.

Featured Trades: (YCS) ProShares Ultra Short Yen ETF 1) The Yen Short is Back in Play. The surprise resignation last night of Japanese Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has suddenly thrust my yen short back into the limelight. Coming in on a landslide only eight months ago, the hapless leader of the left of center Democratic [...]

Featured Trades: (AAPL), (MSFT) 2) Apple's Next Stop: $1,000. When I took a young, cocky, long haired, Levis wearing Steve Jobs around to meet Morgan Stanley's institutional investors to pitch an Apple share offering 28 years ago, I vowed never to buy anything from the man. He was such a great salesman, and possessed such [...]

Featured Trades: (GOLD), (GLD) Spider Gold Trust Shares ETF 3) The New California Gold Rush. The gold rush is back on in California. On my way back from Lake Tahoe recently, I saw that every bend of the American river was dotted with hopeful amateur miners, looking to make a windfall fortune. Weekend hobbyists were [...]

'80% of the world's GDP growth last year came from stimulus. It's not real. Our current debt/GDP is 360%, we have $55 trillion in total debt, and $108 trillion in unfunded liabilities. I think not only are we are going to hit the old low, but there is a pretty decent chance we are going [...]

Featured Trades: (APOL), (CPLA), (DV) 1) Hedge Funds Are Now Targeting For-Profit Education. Hedge funds have been circling for new carrion to devour in the next economic slowdown and have found a big fat target in the for-profit educational sector. The industry is ripe for the taking. For two decades, for-profit schools have lured gullible [...]

Featured Trades: (FXI) ISHARES FTSE/XINHUA CHINA 25 FUND 2) Another 'W' Warning. China traders (FXI) were sucker punched this morning by the shocking decline in the country's May purchasing managers' index, which plunged from 55.7 to 53.9. That leaves the coincident indicator teetering above the 50.0 boom bust level. The news threw a bucket of [...]

Featured Trades: (WATER), (PHO), (ITT), (DHR), (NLC), (VE) POWERSHARES WATER RESOURCES PORTFOLIO 3) Here Come the Water Wars. Long time readers of this letter know well that I have been a big fan of the water play (click here for my last report). The world is rapidly running out of fresh water, possible within five [...]

Featured Trades: (CHERRIES) 4) Watch the ‘Grapes of Wrath’ Replay in California. It’s another sign of the times when the weekend fruit picker population is doubled by people hard hit by the economy, looking to save money on food costs. After driving through miles of undulating brown hills studded with oak trees, passing mile upon [...]

'The irony is that every government is trying to regulate the price of energy, but down the line, the price of energy is going to regulate these governments,' said Mark Fisher of MF Asset Management.

  (SPECIAL MARKET TIMING ISSUE) Featured Trades: (GS), (AAPL) 1) Bring on the Right Shoulder. That is the refrain I am hearing from a number of technical analysts this morning. They believe that last week’s dead cat bounce in US stocks was nothing more than short covering ahead of the three day Memorial Day weekend [...]

(SPECIAL MARKET TIMING ISSUE) Featured Trades: (DOW) 2) How Overvalued Are Stocks? The chart below was passed on to me by a reader showing an inflation adjusted Dow since 1900. Bulls may be forgiven for getting that kicked in the scrotum feeling because it shows the index is 3,000 (43%) points higher than trend. I [...]

(SPECIAL MARKET TIMING ISSUE) Featured Trades: (RHODIUM), (AAUKY.PK) , (PAL), (SWC) 3) Pssst! Hey! Check Out ‘¦.When I was at the Hard Asset Investment Conference in New York a few weeks ago, every hour someone would stop by my table, mention the word ‘rhodium’, and walk away. My interest piqued, I decided to look into [...]

(SPECIAL MARKET TIMING ISSUE) Featured Trades: (EWM), (EWP), (EEM), (EWY), (EWZ), (FXI) ISHARES MSCI MALAYSIA INDEX ISHARES MSCI SPAIN INDEX ISHARES FTSE/XINHUA CHINA 25 INDEX ISHARES MSCI BRAZIL INDEX ISHARES MSCI SOUTH KOREA INDEX 4) Refrain: I’d Rather Have a Poke in the Eye with a Sharp Stick than Buy Equities. I’m feeling pretty good [...]

'We have few, if any spare tires left,' said Mohamed El-Erian, CIO of mega bond house Pimco, about the nail studded road ahead for the US