Any optimism contained in the Fed statement apparently didn't spread to New York University Professor Nouriel Roubini, who spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos following the FOMC release.

In the wake of one of the most volatile years ever for stocks, safety will be a key theme among investors in 2012.  

There's a simple way to DECREASE your tax bill, INCREASE your gains AND do so without added complexity or volatility in your portfolio.

I don't know when I'll sell my gold for sure, but I know what I'll be looking to buy when I do.

Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain are all in big trouble... Fortunately for you there's a great way to profit from their unfortunate mess.

I don't go short metals. I don't use commodity futures. I only go LONG metals - which means that I'm typically buying one metal instead of another.

Now is the best time to buy gold.

The biggest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince the world that he doesn't exist. And the biggest mistake an investor can make is to underestimate risk in any asset class.

The market collapsed last week. For the past month, I've mentioned how difficult it will be for SPX to break the 1250 hump. And during the first half of September the bulls made a desperate attempt to hurdle the 1250 level.

The bulls managed to bring the SPX within a few percent of 1250 just hours before Ben Bernanke was scheduled to speak. And clearly, the bulls wanted (and were ready to get) QE3. But instead of QE3, Bennie and the Feds announced "Operation Twist."

And investors in the market shouted "SELL!"

As the Chief Investment Strategist for an investment research firm, I'm frequently asked two questions about gold. 1 - Can gold really keep going up in price? And 2 - What's the best way to invest in gold today?

It seems like almost every analyst with even a small interest in gold is on the GLD bandwagon. The exchange traded fund introduced by State Street Global Advisors in November of 2004 has so much popular appeal and media coverage that you'd think it was the only way to invest in gold.

The idea is, every share of GLD represents 1/10 of an ounce of real gold that the ETF's custodians keep in a vault in London. No, you can't visit your gold, nor can you have them ship it to you. Indeed, there's no way the gold in their vault will ever end up in your hands - but they do have daily and weekly updates about how much gold they have, and how much they've bought and sold. To date, they hold more than 1232 metric tons of gold bullion, worth more than $68 billion.

I'm excited to announce that I just activated my brokerage account to trade options.

Now, I know options might seem like a departure from my commodities background. And the overwhelming public perception of options is that they're risky.

Of course, public perception of stocks is that they're safe, and the public barely seems to understand the bond market at all - so I think you'd be best advised to ignore public opinion, if not take the opposite position of whatever the public may believe.

The market continued its decline yesterday, although the momentum waned. Despite hitting new lows the indices bounced nicely into the close and protected their March low. Volume was also high

I’m always looking for unique ways to invest in gold, and legendary investor Dennis Gartman recently discussed a way to build a gold position in other currencies…

What do I mean by other currencies? Well, as Mr. Gartman says, “If you buy gold, by definition you have gone short of the U.S. dollar.”

Now, I’m as bearish on the dollar as anyone over the long term, but just like no bull market goes up in a straight line, no bear market drops straight through the floor.

And right now, the dollar is absolutely in the gutter – even relative to other at-least-as-crappy currencies like the Euro or the Yen.

Here’s a one year chart of the dollar index – which plots the exchange rate of the dollar against a basket of other (fiat) currencies.

The market activity was fairly tame last week. Volume was decent, but price movement was nonexistent. In fact, SPX stayed perfectly within its break out borders of 1355 and 1332. But this week should

The market ripped higher yesterday. Volume was average during the ascent which was led again by commodities and technology. The gain from the technology sector was especially good to see yesterday.

The market climbed higher at the open yesterday, but indices could not hold that gain by the end of the day. Monday's session was actually more bearish than it looked as small caps and energy stocks

The market zoomed to new annual highs last week. Volume was sporadic, but mostly better on a daily basis last week than it has been for some time. Small cap stocks continued to lead the market higher,

The market activity was rather mundane on Thursday, but the indices did build on the gain from earlier in the week. Most indices now trade at the highs of this month and above the February highs,

The market blasted higher yesterday and confirmed the break out past 1335 from earlier in the week. Yesterday’s move came after Ben Bernanke once again announced low interest rates for an extended

The market continued its sideways move yesterday and banged-up against 1335 resistance for most of the session. Over the past five sessions the market has been stuck in a small range and trading on

The market exploded higher yesterday. Nothing can stop the bulls, it's almost like North Africa, Japan and the Middle East does not exist.  Of course, we know better. And we also know that earnings

The market is going to get weirder before its back to normal. Yesterday the SPX closed below 1301 support, which indicated it wanted to move lower today. The Nasdaq fought its way back to 2700

The Vietnamese government just banned free market trading of gold bars within the country. This comes just days after Egypt announced that it has banned gold exports. As precious metals like gold and silver soar amid economic imbalances, the reasons to own them, and the stocks of companies that mine them, become even more compelling.

The market notched more gains last week as the indices roared higher. Most of the major indices closed the week at new highs, and despite overbought conditions, showed no signs of turning. While the

If you want to get rich from gold and silver, the physical bars and coins won’t cut it. Physical metals are great as a store of value, but that's it. The best we can realistically hope for with gold and silver bullion is to stay one step ahead of inflation, and protect our principle. Physical gold has never, ever paid a dividend. There’s no compound interest. No cash-flow. Richmont Mines (AMEX: RIC) is one way to invest.

The market lost some momentum midday as the indices could not hold onto morning gains. Volume was lower today as traders sold worse than expected PPI news. Strangely, both stocks and the dollar

The strong gold bull market of 2010 resumed today with gold rising above $1,400

The spot price for gold was $1,413 as of 4:00 p.m. eastern time. Gold hit all time highs in November then backed off as the dollar gained strength primarily due to weakness in the euro. Today gold retraced back to over $1,400 on labor department numbers showing anemic job creation and the revelation of China's gold import numbers.

The Labor department announced employers added only 39,000 jobs in November, far below analyst expectations and the strong gains of 172,000 in October. The overall unemployment number crept closer to 10% as it rose to 9.8% after months of holding at 9.6%.

Gold and other commodities priced in dollars have a tendency to rise in value when the U.S. dollar falls relative to other currencies. Many investors also consider it a “safe asset” to hold when there's uncertainty in the stock market or the dollar, or both.

It’s not enough to pick the right investment class- you also have to pick the right investment. And money that’s paid unnecessarily in expenses might as well be flushed down the toilet.

So I thought I’d do some digging and find the cheapest gold ETFs in the market.

And I was pretty surprised at what I found.

Before I get started, I want to remind you that I’m not a huge fan of owning gold in an ETF. I prefer either the safety of physical gold, OR the upside of owning gold stocks. The ETFs I talk about today are strictly physical gold proxies. I understand that taking delivery of physical gold is not convenient or attractive for everybody.

And I recognize that for some investors, these types of ETFs make sense.

It’s one of those situations in investing that often defies logic - and leads to big opportunities. When the majority of investors become convinced that a trade can only go one way, well, it often doesn’t.

 

And as I’ll show you, there can be easy gains to be had when you understand this.

 

For this example, I’m talking about the U.S. dollar.

 

You’ll probably recall the vicious downtrend the dollar entered in the two months leading up to Ben Bernanke’s second round of quantitative easing.

After my last article about my predictions for the price of silver I’ve received dozens of emails asking about buying precious metals in a variety of tax-sheltered accounts.

Most questions were about IRAs.

And while I AM NOT a tax accountant, or even a regular accountant, or even especially well versed in the labyrinthine intricacies of tax-law, I did some research, and I think I have a helpful answer.

But you might not like what you have to hear.

First - I advise you to speak to a tax attorney before making any big decisions regarding your IRA.

The first thing you need to know about adding gold or silver to your IRA is that not all IRA custodians are set up to do so.

The market pulled back last week as we expected it would, although financials also declined, which was unexpected. We picked up two new positions on Friday, one of which was shares of XLF as they

While most of the mainstream media readily announces new "highs" for the price of gold, The New York Times just published an article denouncing such statements.

From the story: "The actual record was set 30 years ago, when the price of gold, in today's dollars, hit $2,387, or 71 percent higher than it closed on Tuesday."

It's important to remember that gold's price has much further to run before it matches inflation adjusted highs set in 1980.

Yesterday, the President of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick discussed the idea of using gold as a "reference point of market expectations about inflation, deflation and future currency values."

He went on to say, "Although textbooks may view gold as the old money, markets are using gold as an alternative monetary asset today."

Mr. Zoellick's comments were timed in advance to a meeting later this week of the G20 nations in South Korea.

One area of the market that has outpaced most industry groups is gold. Yesterday, gold hit a new high of $1,309 an ounce, as investors buy every dip in price for the precious metal. My target of

Last night, Japan did something it hasn't done since 2004. It sold yen to push the value of its currency lower. A weaker yen helps Japanese exports and is a tool for fighting deflation in the country. Japan officials didn't say how much yen they sold, but it drove the dollar 3% higher against the currency.

As we know, a stronger dollar will push oil prices lower. And it will affect stocks, too.

Japanese stocks are up 2% across the board. We'll see if it affects U.S. stocks to that degree. Declines are likely to be short-lived as the market adjusts to the yen intervention. This will be the dip to buy for investors who missed the start of the current rally.

I've been receiving a steady barrage of questions from readers wanting to know about buying gold and silver.

While I've been answering many of these questions in a piecemeal fashion throughout issues of the Resource Prospector, I thought I'd once and for all cobble the information together in one place.

Like anything, if you're just getting started in buying gold and silver it can be a somewhat daunting process.

That's because there are about as many different precious metal vendors as there are types of coins, and it can be a bit of a minefield if you don't know EXACTLY what you're looking for, how much you should be paying, and perhaps most importantly, why you're buying precious metals in the first place.

I recently received a question from reader David W. which seems to encapsulate just about every possible angle of this topic:

If you own gold and gold stocks, I say good for you. Gold is up about 10% year to date, and gold stocks seem to be the only bright light in an otherwise dim stock market.

And as much as I'd like to take credit for urging you to buy gold and gold stocks - it's ultimately your choice, your responsibility and your glory for your investment success.

But today I want to discuss the arguments surrounding the very fiscal policy that has so far allowed gold to make strides higher as world currencies continue to fall.

As I type, the Federal Government is no doubt pondering another massive stimulus package. Whenever the government asks the question "To spend or not to spend" the answer is almost always "spend, and if that doesn't work, spend some more."

It's an answer that comes easily, and not just because the Fed is run by unelected officials -or because spending is easier than listening to constituent groups complain that you're not spending - the simple truth is that the spenders have a cut-and-dried theory of economics on their side: Keynesianism.

Today I’m going to blow the lid clean off of what I consider to be the biggest tar-pit for individual investors in the market today.

Exchanged Traded Funds – (ETFs) have been sold to the public as easy ways to buy into specific sectors in the stock market. They’re billed with attractive descriptors like “low-load mutual funds” or “poor man’s hedge funds” - or any of a variety of warm, fluffy names depicting them as “easy” ways to capture huge profits.

I’m reminded of an axiom known as the Designers Triangle, which states: a project can be done fast, cheap or good. Pick two.

I’ll amend this axiom for investors. The Investors Triangle states: an investment can be profitable, easy, or fast. Pick one. The obvious choice you’ll make is “profitable” – and these types of investments are rarely easy or fast.

Remind yourself of this axiom the next time someone tells you that a prospective investment has all three characteristics. Most of the best investors in the world made lots of money over a long period of time, and I don’t think any of them would tell you it was especially easy.

Stocks turned lower during Thursday trading after a new jobless claims report released today cast a pall on a rally that began days ago.

At 12:13 pm ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) is down 3.37, or 0.81%, at 414.26, while the Dow is down 1.12%, at 7,402.71, and S&P 500 is down 0.99% at 786.51.

Stocks opened higher this morning on lingering investor enthusiasm over Wednesday’s news that the Fed is planning to pump $1 trillion into the economy. The good news failed to last long though as new jobless claims data this morning showed a higher-than-expected drop of 646,000, while continuing claims set a new record.

Small caps making double-digit gains this afternoon include dry-bulk shipper DryShips (Nasdaq:DRYS), which is up 22% after announcing a $630 million three-year contract from Petrobras. Energy companies are also rising today as oil is climbing back above $50 per barrel. James River Coal (Nasdaq:JRCC) is up 19% on lower-than-average volume, while Rex Energy Corp. (Nasdaq:REXX) is up over 27%.

Rambo Bernanke

On Wednesday, the FOMC voted unanimously to buy over $1 trillion dollars in U.S. Treasury bills, corporate bonds, mortgages and consumer debt.

Chief economist at Bank of New York Mellon Corp. called it a “Rambo Fed” move in a Bloomberg interview.

Bonds immediately rallied, with the 10-year note putting in the biggest one-day gain since 1962. Stocks rallied, too, which is a bit unusual. Bond and stock prices tend to move in opposite directions. When stocks appear risky, money goes into the safe haven of bonds, and vice versa. But these are strange times, and with the Fed taking unprecedented steps to ward off deflation and get lending moving again, it’s not that surprising that some old relationships are being tested.

Bernanke’s intent is clear – he wants to make sure interest rates stay low. Overnight interest rates are already zero. Any more easing and the Fed . . .