By Emanuel Balarie

Editor’s Note: Emanuel is Managing Director of Balarie Capital Management, the managed futures division of Archer Financial Services, Inc. He is also the author of the book, Commodities for Every Portfolio: How You Can Profit From the Long-Term Commodity Boom (Wiley 2007).Emanuel has appeared numerous times on CNBC, and is frequently quoted in dozens of financial publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Marketwatch, Barron’s, MSN Money, and Bloomberg.

Managing wealth during a bull market is easy. More often than not, it’s simply a matter of investing your assets in investments (stock, bonds, and/or real-estate) that will likely benefit from a strong economic environment. Over the last decade, this strategy has proven successful as the stock and real estate markets roared to record highs.

In recent months, however, it has become abundantly clear that the economy has come to a slowdown. Consequently, many investors are finding out that managing money during a bear market is not so easy. In this article, I will discuss how managed futures can help investors navigate through this upcoming economic storm.

Dismal Economic Times

Whether or not you believe that we are headed towards a recession, one cannot dispute that a slowing economy has already begun to have a negative impact on the stock market and real estate markets. You need only to look at the recent declines in the stock market and rising foreclosures to see that this is the case. With a slowdown in the economy, typically consumer spending will decline, unemployment will rise, and earnings for companies will decrease. The end result typically is a further decline in the stock market.

If this wasn’t enough, rising inflation and a declining US dollar also affect cash and bond investments. Investors are realizing that rising energy and commodity prices are translating into a higher cost of living. And if they have traveled abroad in recent years, they will have realized that that the US dollar has declined substantially against all major currencies.

So what do you do? Is it a foregone conclusion that your portfolio will decline during this upcoming economic storm? Not necessarily.

If you are advisor, should you begin to anticipate a decline in your client book? Not necessarily. Successfully managing wealth during a bear market is what will ultimately separate you from your competitors. By properly adapting to the present market conditions, wealth managers have an opportunity to show their value to their current client base, increase their referrals, and ultimately increase their book of business.

Indeed, whether you’re an advisor or you simply manage your own money, reevaluating your asset allocation models, uncovering new investment ideas, and positioning your portfolio to weather this economic downturn are the first steps.

I’ll show you one method that is not only protecting portfolios but actually profiting during these trying times tomorrow. Until then…

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• We're Soooooooo Close! - October 9th, 2009
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• The One Investment That Might Be About to Bottom - September 30th, 2009
• What the Fed Doesn’t Want You To Know About US Debt - September 30th, 2009
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