Industry Rank Analysis 11-17-09 Normally, the focus of this article has been on the industries that have the best overall Zacks ranks, with an occasional mention of the industries that rank particularly badly and thus should be avoided. This week, however, I want to look at some of the industries that are showing sharp improvements in rank, even if they are still far from the top of the list. Ideally, you would want to focus on the industries that are both near the top of the list and rising fast, but that rarely happens, especially for industries with a large number of participants. The Zacks Industry Rank is an un-weighted average of the Zacks ranks of the firms in the industry, so it is much easier for a small industry with only tow or three firms in it to rise quickly and have a very good-looking rank ...

There is no doubt that ETF trading is becoming an interesting topic for many people. The Exchange-Traded Funds market is very detailed. There are many different types of trading in this market and there are many moving parts when one starts ETF trading. This is a very brief look at the advantages of ETF trading and some information that may be helpful to a person who is just being introduced to ETF.

There are many benefits to ETF trading but a person needs to know that the “history” referred to in ETF is relative. The major players in ETF trading are large financial firms that have a strong history and background in the stock market. ETF itself began being actively-managed in 2008. When one looks for a “history” of success with ETF they will want to look to the firms that have a history of success on Wall Street.

Another factor in …

Two years into our “Great Recession” (or “Greater Depression,” depending on who you talk to) gold is selling for $944 an ounce. But back in 1980 – against the backdrop of double-digit inflation in America and a prolonged economic stagnation – gold reached a peak of $850. That’s the equivalent to about $1,900 in today’s money.

Of course, the world was a very different place in 1980. Deflation is now the bogeyman stalking the global economy (although here at Notes we believe a surging asset-price inflation is not far off). And back then, there were persistent rumors that Ronald Reagan was going to bring back the gold standard and send gold, in 1980 money, to $1,000 an ounce.

But as John Katz and Frank Holmes point out in their excellent book on the subject, The Goldwatcher (2008), the supply and demand

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by Jordan J. Weir

It has been consistently demonstrated that your investment returns aren’t so much a function of what stocks your invested in, but what sectors/asset classes your invested in. In the dot com boom, it didn’t matter what dot com stock you invested in, if you were invested in dot com companies, you probably did alright. During the dot com bust, it wasn’t just a couple select companies that went down, it was just about all of them. Because of this tendency for similar stocks to move together, it is much more productive to be able to simply buy ” or short – a type of stock, then try and nail the exact right company. But how can you gain exposure to a sector without taking unnecessary risk based on the company?

ETF. The latest all important acronym to add to your …

There’s a debate brewing on Wall Street right now – it’s a fight over which way the market’s headed after it makes its way out of its current rut.

Tuesday morning on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, anchors Mark Haines and Erin Burnett featured commentary from Phil Roth, Chief Technical Analyst at Miller Tabak. Roth explained that investors shouldn’t be fooled by the recent rally we’ve seen since the market hit its March 9 low of 666.79 – until stocks test their current levels, we could be seeing a bear market rally that could easily give back some of those gains.

CNBC’s Mark Haines was outraged. “The market’s moved more than 20% higher off the lows… 20% or more is a bull market. The benefit of the doubt has to go to the bull market,” exclaimed a frustrated Haines after Roth discounted the anchor’s opinion.

Who’s right?

Forget about what’s happening on TV –

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By Guest Author: Tony Farrell (http://www.monthly-dividend-stocks.com)

Get my list of high yield monthly dividend stocks at http://www.monthly-dividend-stocks.com
My strategy: Research and discover all high yield monthly dividend payers, and start buying them up a whopping $ 200 or so worth at a time. WHAT?!?!? ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!?!? Yes that’s right ONLY $ 200 each. If I had $ 20,000 to invest then I’d be acquiring about 96 positions at $ 200 each and paying the rest in trade commissions. Always get dividends paid in cash, make additional cash infusions when I can to accelerate the process, and use the cash to acquire more positions in other monthly dividend payers. Continue to buy more and more positions as enough cash becomes available, $ 200 or so at a time in each one, starting with higher risk / higher yield and working down to lower risk / lower yield (remember, time is on …

National Stock Exchange, Inc. (NSX(R)) announced that assets in U.S. listed Exchange-Traded Funds (ETF) and Exchange-Traded Notes (ETN) totaled approximately $594.3 billion at May 2009 month-end, an increase of 10% over April 2009 month-end when assets totaled approximately $540.2 billion. At the end of May 2009, the number of listed products totaled 829, compared to 767 listed products one year ago.

May 2009 net cash inflows from all ETFs/ETNs totaled approximately $17.1 billion. Year-to-date net cash inflows totaled approximately $29.8 billion, led by fixed income, commodity, and short U.S. equity based ETF products.

This data is included in the full NSX May 2009 Month-End ETF/ETN Data Report released by the Exchange, which has become a key industry source for ETF/ETN data. These Data Reports are published following the end of each calendar month.

The NSX monthly statistics include shares of open-end exchange-traded

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State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), the investment management arm of State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT), today announced it will rebalance the holdings of eight SPDR(R) exchange traded funds that seek to track S&P Select Industry Indices on June 19, 2009 in accordance with the new procedural changes implemented by Standard & Poor’s.

Beginning with the June 2009 rebalancing of the S&P Select Industry Indices, Standard & Poor’s will rebalance the indices to equal weights using closing prices on the second Friday of the rebalancing month (i.e. the stock price reference date is one week prior to the rebalancing date effective date). The rebalancing effective date will remain after the close of the third Friday of the month.

The SPDR ETFs based on S&P Select Indices include: — SPDR S&P Retail ETF (Symbol: XRT) — SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) — SPDR

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FINRA is the largest independent regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States. We oversee nearly 5,000 brokerage firms, 173,000 branch offices and 653,000 registered securities representatives. Our chief role is to protect investors by maintaining the fairness of the U.S. capital markets.     

Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Act”),1 and Rule 19b-4 thereunder,2 notice is hereby given that on May 11, 2009, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”) (f/k/a National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. (“NASD”)) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”) the proposed rule change as described in Items I and II below, which Items have been prepared by FINRA. FINRA has designated the proposed rule change as constituting a “non-controversial” rule change under paragraph (f)(6) of Rule 19b-4 under the Act,3 which renders the proposal

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The first-ever emerging market sector family of Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) has been introduced by Emerging Global Advisors, LLC, (EGA) it was announced today.

The new Emerging Global Shares (EGS) family of ETFs is based on the Dow Jones Emerging Markets Sector Titans Indexes and is designed to provide institutional investors with broad-based exposure to leading emerging market companies across multiple industry sectors. The initial funds will focus on Energy and Metals & Mining. All the ETFs will be listed on the NYSE Arca electronic exchange.

“For the first time, institutional investors will have a transparent vehicle for gaining sector-based exposure to the emerging markets,” said Robert Holderith, chief executive officer at Emerging Global Advisors. “Our family of ETFs will provide the market access and liquidity to allow institutions to execute trading and investment strategies that have not been previously possible.”

The initial

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