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 [...]

Featured Trades: (RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE) 3) Bring on the Housing Double Dip. This is another 'I told you so' piece, so if that sort of thing annoys you, skip on. Yesterday's 300,000 figure for new home sales was absolutely diabolical, 26.8% lower than the 410,000 that was expected and the worst since 1963. This is [...]

Featured Trades: (MIDDLE EAST BOOK REVIEW) 4) The Ultimate Book on the Middle East. I just finished reading Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East from 1776 to the Present by Michael B. Oren, an encyclopedic recent history of the Middle East. As an investor, you are going to have to be knowledgeable [...]

'There is a massive, rotting pool of mortgages on bank balance sheets.'¦There is no doubt there is going to be a double dip in housing,' said Meredith Whitney, CEO of the Meredith Whitney Advisory Group.

Featured Trades: (SOYBEANS), (SOYBEAN MEAL), Teucrium Agricultural Trust Corn Fund Teucrium Agricultural Trust Soybean Fund Teucrium Agricultural Trust Wheat Fund Teucrium Agricultural Trust Sugar Fund 1) Going Back into the Ags. OK, I can’t stand it anymore. After staying out of the agricultural sector for the past six months I’m going back in. I’m not [...]

Featured Trades: (GLOBAL TAX RATES) 2) Thank Goodness I don't live in Sweden! I pulled the chart below off of Paul Kedrosky's ever insightful website, Infectious Greed, showing world tax rates as a percentage of GDP for the past 40 years. Sweden suffers the world's heaviest tax burden at 51%, compared to only 27% in [...]