Technically Precious With Merv. Dec 11, 2009

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ETF Trading Gold, Silver, Oil, Natural Gas & The Index

ETF trading has made it so easy for traders and investors to get maximum exposure to the entire market without the high fees of mutual funds and manager. There are now ETFs covering almost every investment type whether it's stocks, indexes, sectors, commodities, bonds, real estate, currencies etc…

In this short report I will quickly show a few charts on what is happening for precious metals and energy.

HUI - Gold Stock

This monthly chart of the gold stocks index you can see how easy it is to trade the market and avoid large sell offs when using technical analysis. Currently gold stocks are in a bull market, testing the 2008 highs. Until we are proven wrong buying stocks after a pullback is a winning strategy. (more)

Volcker: US Economy Dependent on Government Support

Former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, keeping his name in the news, remains dour about the economy. This weekend in Germany, he opened up about the still underway crisis and how the few signs of economic life he’s witnessed are mainly the result of government intervention.

According to Bloomberg:

“…Volcker said the financial crisis was still continuing and the U.S. economy is ‘pretty dependent’ on government support. The test for policymakers now is to time the exit from their emergency fiscal and monetary stimulus, he said.

“‘You’ve not got much room for exiting right now,’ Volcker said.” (more)

GLD Conspiracy Theories

As the world's second-largest exchange-traded fund, and sixth-largest holder of gold bullion, the GLD gold ETF has grown into a juggernaut. GLD's mounting popularity among stock-market investors and speculators has made it one of the most powerful forces in the global gold markets. This ETF's success is all the more remarkable considering it was born just 5 years ago, its rise to prominence has been meteoric.

With GLD's large and growing impact on gold prices, no trader can afford to ignore this behemoth. So it is watched with intense interest, creating a fertile breeding ground for GLD conspiracy theories to flourish. A small yet surprisingly prolific fringe of GLD opponents has done an impressive job sowing rumors and doubts about this trading vehicle. Each time I discuss GLD in my writings, I hear about these theories. (more)

President Barack Obama's top economic aide Christina Romer said Sunday the US jobless rate could rise further and that the improving US economy is not yet out of recession. Asked if the 10 percent unemployment rate could go higher, Romer, who heads up the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told NBC: "It could well."
"These things certainly do bounce around. I would anticipate some bumps in the road as we go ahead," she told the network's "Meet the Press" program, noting that jobs were a key element of the economic recovery. (more)

Jim Rogers-World Wide Depression

Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor

Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations' drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer.

Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were "the only liquid investment capital" available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result. (more)

Look Who got the economy wrong and why are they still in charge?

Why Britain faces a bleak future of food shortages

Britain faces a 'perfect storm' of water shortage and lack of food, says the government's chief scientist, and climate change and crop and animal diseases will add to future woes. Science is now striving to find solutions.

It was an ecological disaster that occurred on the other side of the planet. Yet the drought that devastated the Australian wheat harvest last year had consequences that shook the world. It sent food prices soaring in every nation. Wheat prices across the globe soared by 130%, while shopping bills in Britain leapt by 15%.

A year later and the cost of food today has still to fall to previous levels. More alarmingly, scientists are warning that far worse lies ahead. A "perfect storm" of food shortages and water scarcity now threatens to unleash public unrest and conflict in the next 20 years, the government's chief scientist, Professor John Beddington, has warned. (more)