Big Wednesday Wipeout! Bonzai Pipeline, Oahu

It’s just a big picture but those are big waves! If you rode a wave successfully like that in markets yesterday you were probably pretty pumped-up to try again today. But, wipe-outs happen.

Okay, enough metaphors. This was a pretty ugly day. I day-traded most of the day and was marveling at the low volume and choppiness until the last hour when “BAM!” all hell broke loose.

This is what a bear market can do to you. If you were short yesterday you suffered like our surfer friend with that countertrend rally. But, you had to expect that with markets oversold! Today it’s back to reality, or what passes for it “today”. Tomorrow we go at one more time. Wax your boards!

Volume remains heavy and breadth is as negative today as positive …

ETFs are securities certificates that state legal right of ownership over part of a basket of individual stock certificates. Several different kinds of financial firms are needed for ETFs to come into being, trade at prices that closely match their underlying assets, and unwind when investors no longer want them. Laying all the groundwork is the fund manager. This is the main backer behind any ETF, and they must submit a detailed plan for how the ETF will operate to be given permission by the SEC to proceed.

In theory all that a fund manager needs to do is establish clear procedures and describe precisely the composition of the ETF (which changes infrequently) to the other firms involved in ETF creation and redemption. In practice, however, only the very biggest institutional money management firms with experience in indexing tend …

One indicator, PEG, of fundamental analysis measures P/E relative to growth (EPS growth). It is especially helpful to compare stocks, indexes. Low P/E not necessary means under valuated price. It's always needed to compare with potential growth. PEG indicator uses EPS growth as a denominator.I made following analysis for world stock markets. Assets are regional ETF underlying international stocks. It's not problem to find P/E ratio for ETF in question but it's always difficult to find EPS respectively EPS growth data. Therefore I used expected GDP growth (2008) for world economies (based on IMF prediction). Which means as a PEG denominator is GDP growth instead of EPS growth. ...

There are 67 countries between the United States, Canada, EAFE, emerging market and frontier market countries. It may be helpful to you if you visualize the geographic relationship between those countries when you think about making country, region or development stage country investments.

The pie chart shows the relative market cap size of the US, Canada, the 21 EAFE (Europe, Australasia, Far East) countries, and the 25 emerging market countries. The stock market capitalization of the 19 frontier market countries is essentially negligible in comparison to the other market categories.

The map color codes the location of Canada, EAFE countries, and the emerging and frontier market countries. The US in not color coded.

It is interesting to note that the square area of the emerging markets is quite …