It has become a popular strategy over the past decade, and it does have some merit, but there are some serious pitfalls.  The strategy is to buy the SP500 when prices close above the simple 10 month moving average; the sell signal is a monthly closing price below the simple 10 month moving average.  In [...]

Today’s Top ETF Winners:ProShares Ultra DJ-UBS Natural Gas ETF (NYSEAMEX:BOIL): +1.46 (9.64%) Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bull 3X Shares ETF (NYSEARCA:NUGT): +1.68 (6.92%) Direxion Daily China Bull 3x Shares ETF (NYSEARCA:YINN): +1.50 (6.85%)

Today’s Top ETF Losers:

ProShares UltraShort DJ-UBS Natural Gas ETF (NYSEAMEX:KOLD): -8.01 (-9.36%) Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bear 3X Shares ETF (NYSEARCA:DUST): -2.14 (-6.78%) ProShares UltraShort MSCI Mexico ETF (NYSEARCA:SMK): -2.14 (-4.85%)

The top ETF Winner, the ProShares Ultra DJ-UBS Natural Gas ETF (NYSEAMEX:BOIL) likely increased today because natural gas prices gained 4.5% today.  The Top ETF Loser, the ProShares Ulstrashort DJ-UBS Natural Gas ETF (NYSEAMEX:KOLD) likely decreased today because this fund tracks inversely to natural gas prices.  Keep in mind that both of these ETFs are leveraged, so any gains or losses are further exaggerated.

The 2nd place ETF

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Major Markets and Index ETFs closed mixed after a solid week filled with Fed action, Tech Sector ETF, and Gold ETF surges.

Major indexes closed mixed today as the S&P 500 lost .16%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost .58%, the Nasdaq Composite gained .4% and the Russell 2000 Index gained .34%.  Index ETFs were mixed as well as the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY) lost .13%, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSEARCA:DIA) lost .52%, the PowerShares QQQ Series 1 ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ) gained .3%, and the iShares Russell 2000 Index ETF (NYSEARCA:IWM) gained .69%.

Index ETFs likely closed mixed because of today’s lackluster economic reports: US GDP growth for 4th quarter 2011 was 2.8%, while consumer sentiment rose a measly 5.1 points to

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Tech Sector ETFs wrap up an impressive week by closing in the green

Tech Sector ETFs including the PowerShares QQQ Trust Series 1 ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ) and the Technology SPDR ETF (NYSEARCA:XLK) closed higher today to wrap up a stellar week led by tech sector giant Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL).

Both NASDAQ:QQQ and NYSEARA:XLK registered monster gains this week led by Apple Computer’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) earnings report, which indicated that earnings had doubled compared to Q4 2010 and that sales had increased by 70%.  The tech sector liked this news so much that the NASDAQ reached its 11 year high on Wednesday.  The tech sector surge had begun last week despite Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) disappointing earnings.  Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) however, reported excellent earnings later last week and

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Below is a look at some of the headlines for companies that made news in the healthcare sector on January 27, 2012.

Gold ETFs continued their surge today to finish out a strong week

Gold and Gold ETFs have risen to their 4th straight week of gains as lackluster GDP growth and Fed actions earlier this week likely spurred the gold bugs to buy the precious metal.  The Gold spot price increased .79% to close at $1733.50 per ounce, the gold spot price is almost to its early December high of just over $1760 per ounce before its large crash and burn at the end of 2011.

Gold ETFs including the SPDR Gold Trust ETF (NYSEARCA:GLD), the iShares Gold Trust ETF (NYSEARCA:IAU), the Market Vectors Gold Miners Trust ETF (NYSEARCA:GDX) and the ProShares Ultra Gold ETF (NYSEARCA:UGL) have all risen over 1% today, with the the Gold miners ETF

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Therapeutic and diagnostic devices maker AngioDynamics (ANGO) has trimmed its sales and earnings outlook for fiscal 2012 based on the recent voluntary recall, in the U.S, of the ablation zone estimator (“AZE”) software for its tumor-zapping NanoKnife systems.

The recall has resulted in a momentary halt on the nationwide shipments of the popular NanoKnife system, which is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) for ablation of soft tissue. The company noted that the recall will not affect NanoKnife sales in the overseas markets. 

The AZE software has been designed to determine the ablation zone. The FDA recently said that the feature should be subject to a 510(k) premarket notification submission and approval. Subsequently, the company decided to remove the feature and asked its clients to stop using it for clinical determination of the ablation zone.

The company will contact its U.S. customers to schedule a software change to remove

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Bon-Ton Stores Inc. (BONT), a department store chain, recently announced the appointment of Brendan L. Hoffman as its new CEO and president, effective February 7. Hoffman is also set to join the company’s board of directors.

Hoffman replaces Bud Bergen who announced in November last year that he will retire once the company finds a new leader. With Hoffman holding the office of the company’s president and CEO, Burgen will become the chairman of the Bon-Ton’s board. Once Bergren takes on the role of the chairman, Executive Chairman Tim Grumbacher will step down from his position but will remain as a board member.

Hoffman, 43, previously served as the president and CEO of Lord & Taylor’s LLC. Prior to that, Hoffman served for six years as the president and CEO of Neiman Marcus Direct, a subsidiary of The Neiman Marcus Group Inc. He played a key role in the growth of

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When BlackRock filed for a new global ETF based on the MSCI Frontier Emerging Markets Select Index last month, it raised my interest.

After all, despite the barrage of niche products being launched practically every week, the ETF market is still longing for a global, broad-based frontier markets fund.

But investors expecting a frontier fund loaded with companies from countries like Vietnam, Nigeria and Kazakhstan should know a few facts. For starters, the fund won’t be a pure frontier markets fund, and for that matter, BlackRock’s iShares doesn’t even make that claim in the paperwork it submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to the filing, the fund’s underlying MSCI index has exposure to 21 frontier markets and five “smaller” emerging markets. Since the fund will be cap weighted, it’s very likely to have significant weightings in the five emerging markets of Colombia, Egypt, Morocco, Philippines and Peru. In fact, the

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Canadian Solar Inc. (CSIQ) has entered into an agreement with Al Fahad Group under which it will supply more than 1.5 MW of its solar modules for one of the largest solar Photovoltaic (“PV”) projects in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Al Fahad Group is a firm with diversified exposure in Defense & Intelligence, Homeland Security, Networking & Communications and Power. The company offers comprehensive energy solutions in the Middle East for a variety of fields of implementation.

Canadian Solar’s CS5A-M solar modules are ideally suitable for the local environmental conditions in the Middle East. The solar project headed by the Al Fahad Group will lead the way for renewables in this region. It is a government venture that recently got approval during the World Future Energy Summit held in Abu Dhabi.

Canadian Solar’s modules seem to be in great demand. In December last year, it entered into a sales agreement with Siemens under

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