You’ve probably heard about leveraged ETFs: Funds designed to deliver twice or even three times the return of their benchmarks.

Just last week, ProShares launched the first triple-leveraged ETFs tied to the S&P 500 index. ProShares UltraPro S&P 500 (UPRO) is a 3x ETF for bulls, while ProShares UltraPro Bear S&P 500 (SPXU) is a 3x leveraged inverse ETF.

What a deal! Wouldn’t it be great to double or triple your gains? Far be it from me to throw water on the party, … [visit site to read more]

With all of the rhetoric, obfuscation, and spin coming out of Washington these days, some might find it hard to see just where our current policies are leading us. One look at the following chart of federal receipts, outlays, and borrowing, however, and the facts seem pretty clear.

Put that together with the following report from the Associated Press, “Mountain of Debt: Rising Debt May Be Next Crisis,” and it makes you wonder whether this year’s July 4th holiday should really be a … [visit site to read more]

Hitachi Ltd. (HIT), a Tokyo-based global conglomerate, is expected to supply advanced lithium-ion batteries to General Motors (GMGMQ.PK) in 2010 for use in its gasoline hybrid-electric vehicles (HEV). The deal with GM will increase Hitachi’s production capacity for lithium-ion and expand its business in the automotive-related field. It will also meet rising demand for gas-electric cars.

Hitachi expects the global market for HEVs to expand from 690,000 units in 2007 to 1.5 million … [visit site to read more]

Every few months, I feel it’s my duty to let you know the latest about what’s going on in housing. There is simply so much off-the-wall blather, bogus data, and downright misinformation out there that if I don’t cut through it, I don’t know who the heck will!

In a nutshell, we’ve gone from housing Armageddon to a market marked by some stability. Not a big improvement. Not a huge recovery. Just some stability. But if I’m right about the future, it’s going to be a LONG time until we see … [visit site to read more]

The GBPUSD broke below trendline support yesterday and has been able to stay below the level today.  The trendline has provided support on 4 separate occassions during GBPUSD’s move higher from the April 22nd low of 1.4396 to the high reached June 30th at 1.6743.

The trendline was broken at the 1.6435 level yesterday. Today the trendline comes in at around the 1.6460 level.  Should momentum continue to the downside, the longer term target could extend down to 1.5846 intially.  … [visit site to read more]