Right off the bat, one must understand that chasing a trend is a rather dangerous thing to do. On the other hand, one must also understand that there may be more room to profit as a stock or commodity moves upward. This is a choice, made carefully, by any individual investor with advice from a registered investment advisor.

In this regard, one might consider the gold exchange traded fund, or (ETF). Gold commodity prices have been rising of late and do seem to have “legs” going forward as the US dollar continues to have issues. Although gold is rather tied to many aspects of the economy, many more knowledgeable indicate that a possible $2,000.00 per/oz could occur. Although this is pure speculation it nonetheless needs to be a consideration in the back of one’s mind. As has been pointed out in past posts, there are several ways to go about the

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Why are the prices of so many commodities rising in an economy that seems to remain quite weak?

% change butter35 coffee21.8 cocoa20.2 copper89.1 corn-8.3 cotton38.6 gold32.1 hogs2.7 oats13.4 oil63.2 lead81.9 palladium75.9 platinum61.7 silver59.1 steel-0.9 sugar73.6 tin22.5 wheat-26.6 zinc55.4 average37.4 euro12

The table at the right summarizes the percent change between January 6 and November 11 in the cash prices of 19 commodities reported in the Wall Street Journal (downloaded via Webstract). The average commodity in this list has appreciated 37% since the start of the year.

A recent paper by Ke Tang and Wei Xiong documents an increasing tendency for commodity prices to move together over the last few years. A decade ago, what happened to oil prices was largely unrelated to movements in most other commodity prices. The graphs below show how the correlations between oil prices and

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November 13, 2009
The following article is provided courtesy of Elliott Wave International (EWI). For more insights that challenge conventional financial wisdom, download EWI’s free 118-page Independent Investor eBook.

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Large banks and more recently pension funds have suddenly become infatuated with gold.  They chant the mantras that gold bugs have known for years: gold is a store of value; owning gold is financial insurance; an ounce of gold will always buy a good suit.  The idea is that if the economy continues to weaken and share prices decline, a strategic allocation of the precious metal will hedge and offset some of the losses in the financial sector.

On the surface it seems to make sense and it’s hard to argue with the logic.  Even so, logic can sometimes get twisted, whereas facts cannot.  The …

The paragraphs below are excerpts from Richard Russell’s latest Dow Theory Letters, arguing the case for gold bullion.

“Today I ask myself, where would I rather have my subscribers be - loaded up in the Dow Jones Industrial Average or loaded up with gold?. And in all honesty, I believe they are better off in gold than in the stock market with DIA.

“There are a number of items favoring higher gold now.

(1) Interest rates are at zero, which means the ‘opportunity cost’ of owning gold now is highly favorable. You sacrifice no yield in owning gold vs. Treasury bills. T-bills pay you nothing, so you might as well have your money in gold.

(2) The Bernanke Fed will evidently stop at nothing in its all-out attempt to ‘jump start’ the wobbly US economy. This means spending and building debt at a never-seen-before rate. This will

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I have just arrived in Geneva after an exhausting but hugely successful few days in Ljubljana, quaint capital of Slovenia. It is rather difficult to write proper posts while on the road, but I will do my best to feed interesting snippets through - that is when not investigating how the gnomes see the future of Swiss banking.

Gold hit a new peak after a drop in the US dollar to a 15-month trough, resulting in the precious metal recording an eight-day winning streak. According to Bespoke, the current run represents the seventh time since 1980 that gold has had a streak of eight or more consecutive days with a gain. The report said: “As shown below, the only time one of these streaks went for more than eight days was back in 1982 when the ninth day was also positive (on the tenth day it fell 5.7%, or

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Today we are featuring top-performing “Precious Metals" equity mutual funds, which primarily invest in equity securities companies that are involved in mining of gold and other precious metals. Investors can find such funds by checking out the entire list of the Zacks #1 Rank Precious Metals Equity Funds.

3 Precious Picks

Van Eck International Investors Gold A (INIVX) seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing in common stocks of gold mining companies. The fund was incepted in January 1956.

The fund normally invests at least 80% of total assets in the gold mining industry, with at least 25% of assets invested in gold mining stocks. The fund may invest up to 100% of its assets, or, for temporary defensive purposes, less than 25% of its assets in gold stocks. Randgold Resources Limited, Goldcorp Incorporated and Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited are among its major holdings.

The fund declares and pays dividends in March, June, September and December.

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 22, 2009 – Zacks.com releases the latest Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks featured in this week’s analysis include Barrick Gold (ABX), Eldorado (EGO), Goldcorp (GG), Freeport-McMoRan (FCX), Pan American Silver (PAAS), Market Vectors Gold Miners (GDX), S&P 500 SPDR (SPY) and Gold SPDR (GLD).

Zacks Industry Rank Analysis is written by Charles Rotblut, CFA, Senior Market Analyst for Zacks.com.

This week: Gold Miners’ Margin Problem

As gold sets new highs, it would only be natural to assume that profit forecasts for gold mining companies would be soaring too. Surprisingly, profit forecasts are not jumping.

Though some brokerage analysts have raised their full-year projections in recent weeks, the Zacks Consensus Estimate is not moving higher for most gold miners. Rather, it is essentially unchanged for Barrick Gold (ABX), Eldorado (EGO), Goldcorp (GG)

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The Dow Jones industrial average moved up 132 points on Tuesday and all major indicators rose more than 1% as the Australian central bank’s decision to raise interest rates boosted optimism about the world economy.   Investors' show of confidence ahead of a flood of corporate earnings reports came as Australia became the first major country to raise interest rates since the onset of the financial crisis last year.  The move signals that policymakers see that country's economy as strong enough to withstand higher borrowing costs. That touched off hopes that other economies might also be growing.

Australia's decision dented demand for the U.S. dollar, which, in turn, raised commodities prices.  US energy and materials stocks moved up, oil also rose, and gold reached a record high.  Stock investors cheered the drop in the dollar because it boosts corporate profits by making U.S. goods cheaper for overseas buyers.

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News that oil-producing countries are in talks with oil-consuming countries to denominate future transactions in a basket of currencies rather than in dollars sent the U.S. dollar to new lows and gold to new non-inflation adjusted highs of $1,045 before settling around $1,039. Portfolio manager Brian Hicks spoke with Stacey Delo from Marketwatch about whatrsquo;s behind goldrsquo;s big move upward today and whether todayrsquo;s move is just the beginning of a long-term trend for the precious metal. Hicks believes the trend has legs and has even moved his price target higher. My original target was $1,100 by year-end, and I think where the dollar is now and the potential for it to go lower between now and the year end, I think I have to move that target up a bit to $1,150, maybe $1,200 by year-endhellip; Wersquo;ve tested $1,000 an ounce on several occasions over the last 18 months and now wersquo;ve ...

News that oil-producing countries are in talks with oil-consuming countries to denominate future transactions in a basket of currencies rather than in dollars sent the U.S. dollar to new lows and gold to new non-inflation adjusted highs of $1,045 before settling around $1,039. Portfolio manager Brian Hicks spoke with Stacey Delo from Marketwatch about whatrsquo;s behind goldrsquo;s big move upward today and whether todayrsquo;s move is just the beginning of a long-term trend for the precious metal. Hicks believes the trend has legs and has even moved his price target higher. My original target was $1,100 by year-end, and I think where the dollar is now and the potential for it to go lower between now and the year end, I think I have to move that target up a bit to $1,150, maybe $1,200 by year-endhellip; Wersquo;ve tested $1,000 an ounce on several occasions over the last 18 months and now wersquo;ve ...