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Monday, December 24, 2012

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4 Profitable Portfolio Tips For Utility Investors

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 11:47 AM PST

By Aggressive Dividends:

Utility stocks have been fighting the currents lately, largely due to an imminent fiscal cliff, which will trigger an increase in dividend taxation. Partially due to this, the Utility sector has been a strong under-performer of late. The chart below compares the six-month performance of the Dow Jones Utility Average vs. the S&P 500.

(click to enlarge)

Are Utility investors just helpless victims of Mr. Market, or is there something that can be done to fight back? Let's consider a couple of counter-measures that may help protect the vital organs of your portfolio.

Benchmarks And Test Setup

Before we look at some performance-enhancers, we need benchmarks to gauge the potential effectiveness. Our initial screen will include any stock in the Utilities sector (GICS 55) that trades over one dollar. Our benchmark will be S&P 1500 Electric Utilities. The test will run over the trailing 10 years with annual re-balancing.

Complete Story »

SDBullion.com's Holiday Hours of Operation

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 11:29 AM PST

Thank you to all SD readers and SD Bullion stackers for all your support throughout the 2012 calendar year!  Below you will find SD Bullion's hours of operation over the holidays.   December 24th SD Bullion will remain open for online bullion orders until 5:30 p.m .  Phone support will close at 1 p.m.   [...]
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Gold Chart Updated

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 10:55 AM PST

Gold is tracking sideways remaining above support at the recent bottom near $1636 but unable to get much going to the upside. The rest of this week will see reduced liquidity and thus the possibility of increased price swings. Unless we get a large sustained move in either direction, I would not read too much into the price action this week. Perhaps the only event that might provide some fundamentally-based direction would be news regarding the so-called 'fiscal cliff'.



Silver continues to look much weaker on the charts than does gold. Some of this is no doubt tied to the fears regarding the lack of an agreement of that cliff issue. The reason I say this is because copper is also getting knocked down and has fallen some 20 cents off its recent best levels near $3.72. Unless copper reverses to the upside, silver will have some trouble getting anything going.

Silver experienced only a brief or mild bump off its recent low and then gave a fair amount of that back today. This market will not attract any momentum-based buying whatsoever unless it can get back above 31 which will force some shorts out and issue some signals to the algorithms to begin some buying. If the recent low does not hold, I see no chart support until $2850 - $28.30.

In Today's Gold Mining, Less Is More

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 10:37 AM PST

By Bruce Pile:

The gold mining industry seems to be entering some kind of twilight zone where something fundamental is changing, but you can't quite seem to put your finger on it. The group has become unpopular, but there seems to be something more than just a stagnant gold price over the last year to blame. If you look at the financial performance of the big producing miners, there is not that much to shy away from (click images to enlarge):

This is the kind of steady, powerful growth investors dream of. The consolidating gold price of the last year has just put a relatively small dent in this picture. A quick survey of Morningstar's numbers for the big five -- Barrick (ABX), AngloGold (AU), Goldcorp (GG), Newmont (NEM), and Goldfields (GDFI.OB) -- reveals that they all have brisk growth in cash flow from operations since 2007 with only a


Complete Story »

Should You Buy Gold Now?

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 10:17 AM PST

By Ed Liston:

U.S. CMX gold futures for February 2013 (GCG3) delivery settled at $1660.1 on Dec. 21, 2012, which is the lowest number since Aug. 30, 2012. Prices for physical gold have been rangebound since October -- i.e., post-consolidation of the August to early October rally. However, a bullish trend in ETFs can be seen with steady buying interest across the ETFs. SPDR Gold Trust ETF (GLD), although seeing a steady fall in price over the last few months, has had a huge increase in trading volume as the price has gone down (or it may be the other way around).

The overall performance suggests that gold is struggling to attract sufficient fresh interest to drive the bull market. The reasons for recent weakness in bullion have been encouraging economic data from the U.S. and China and a credit rating upgrade for Greece. Moreover, gold has moved sideways over the past


Complete Story »

Baltic Gold a prehistoric treasure

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 09:00 AM PST

As winter gales lash Poland's Baltic coast, the storms are spitting up a prehistoric treasure on the sandy shore. Here, amber is known as "Baltic gold".

Commodity Technical Analysis: Gold Nears Measured Objective

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 08:29 AM PST

Big Ben’s Ghost of QE Past, Present, and Future

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 08:20 AM PST

It was the best of times; it might be the worst of times.

Dollar bills glide effortlessly to the ground, dropped from the giant QE machine in the sky. All is quiet, all is calm. There is peace on earth, well, at least in Washington D.C. and on Wall Street. And then with a horrible crash, another Mortgage Backed Security (MBS) explodes and collateral damage spreads far and wide.

Cut to three am in the Big Ben bedroom. A ghost appears amid the sound of Hope and Chains and carries the sleeping Head of The Fed to a land far away. The Head of the Fed wakes to the sound of his own voice saying, "The impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the subprime market seems likely to be contained." and "we do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy or to the financial system."

The ghost says, "I am the ghost of QE past. That is what you said. Where has all the prosperity gone?"

And the Head of The Fed says, "I'll get back to you on that" and promptly falls into a deep sleep dreaming of Keynesian sugarplum trees and simple delusions.

But his dream turns into a nightmare as the Keynesian sugarplum tree dissolves into a money printing press which has been running so long and so fast that it overheats and burns to the ground. The Head of the Fed screams in anguish, "What will we do without a printing press?" The ghost of QE Present enters and says with a deep voice, "Tell everyone that all is quiet, all is calm, and quickly order a faster printing press with overnight delivery. Give this a code name to make it sound important – call it QE4. Tell the people it is for their own good. Most people still listen to you and will believe a faster printing press will solve all their problems."

The Head of the Fed smiles contentedly and falls asleep dreaming of helicopter drops and fewer critics.

But that dream also turns into a nightmare as the helicopter collides in mid-air with a gigantic black swan. Both crash and burn. The Head of the Fed wakes with a start, grabs a blue pill, and chants "Inflate or Die" over and over. On the 13th repetition, a third ghost arrives and derisively states, "Kinda hard to plan for a black swan in your econometric models, isn't it?"

The Head of the Fed looks in horror at the third ghost and fears for his printing press and helicopter. But attempting to regain control he states, "Of course I can't model a black swan event. No one can."

The ghost sighs disgustedly and says, "I am the ghost of QE Future, and I am here to show you the probable future. Look out that window. Do you see the long lines of unemployed workers desperately seeking jobs? Do you see the gasoline price – yes – $8.99 per gallon? Do you see the cost of food for a family of four – outrageous? On the bright side, banker bonuses are up 10% this year. But, for most people, things got worse, much worse, instead of better, after you implemented QE4. So you decide, QE4, QE5, QE6 and more, or another plan?"

The Head of the Fed was quiet for a long time. He finally said, "I'll get back to you on that," popped another blue pill, and fell asleep dreaming of even bigger and faster printing presses, larger helicopters, and the absence of black swans.

The ghost of QE future dejectedly stated, "We tried. Now it is up to someone else." And he faded from this world with a sad and cynical smile.

What goes around, comes around. Train wrecks do occur! It might be the worst of times.

Author: GE Christenson, aka Deviant Investor

Three Experts About The Gold & Silver Price Drops

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 08:13 AM PST

We all remember the gold and silver price smash of exactly a year ago. Between Christmas and New Year, in a thinly traded market, both metals had been "attacked" without a fundamental reason. It looks like this year we are experiencing a similar type of price action. It remains to be seen if the worse has passed.

Gold and silver are in a waterfall decline for four weeks now. In the week from December 17th till December 21st, gold lost $40 or 2.4% while silver went down $2.30 which is 7.1% on the week. The metals currently stand at their levels of August of this year.

To help our readers put things into perspective, we collected in this article the view of three true experts. The key takeaways: do not worry about the short term price evolution, some market participants have had their day but the primary trend is still intact

David Morgan

David Morgan, with four decades of experience in the precious metals markets, commented on the recent price action in two different interviews (sources are here and here). In his regular updates and monthly newsletter, Mr Morgan provides more in-depth insights. Recommended reading: Silver-Investor.com.

"We see a very similar pattern as a year ago when the market sold off into the latter part of December. It doesn't concer me when it comes to the fundamentals. Trading volume was light but not as light as you would expect this time of the year. Thin markets are not traded heavily at the end of the year, so they can easily move around one way or another.

The other thing has to do with the tax law changes that are taking place in the US. A lot of savvy investors (including pension funds, managed hedge funds) are looking at a new cost basis. What actually behoves them, tax wise, is to sell out silver at $31 / $33 (gold at $1700) and rebuy in 2013 at a new cost basis.

The fiscal cliff is not the real cause, it's an excuse. We have gone over the fiscal cliff a long time ago. It seems so ridiculous to think that out of a sudden investors are so concerned about these problems.

I have seen it again and again. When you have the most bullish news for the precious metals, the gold price gets whacked down. Part of it is related to psychology. Most gold and silver bulls look at this [QE] news as bullish for the metals. It is indeed bullish news long and intermediate term. Believe it or not, there are people that have the authority by law to intervene in the markets. It's called the Working Group on Financial Markets. They can enter any market they chose and basically manipulate them. It is ridiculous that people panic on two or three down days. This is just some sort of a psychological warfare. One day does not make the market.

Ted Butler

On a deeper level, Ted Butler wrote the following paragraphs in his latest commentary to this paid subscribers. We were granted the permission to publish Mr Butler's view. He keeps on repeating that [short and intermediate term] prices are determined in the COMEX markets. Ted Butler's premium newsletter explains into detail how these markets work and give a weekly update on the evolution. Recommended reading: ButlerResearch.com.

The one good thing about this week's price smash in silver (and gold) is that it should have removed any doubt that it had nothing to do with anything except COMEX price manipulation. By anything I mean the smash had nothing to do with physical market fundamentals or the trading of metals in any other market; this was a COMEX production pure and simple. It was actually refreshing that it was so clearly a COMEX generated smash, as it made any attempt at alternative explanation look silly. If one doesn't see that paper COMEX trading was the cause of this week's sharp price declines, it can only be because of a refusal to see the clear facts.

The fact is that paper positioning on the COMEX silver futures derivatives market is overwhelming the price influence emanating from the host world market for physical silver, or in other words, the tail is wagging the dog.  Real supply and demand go out the window and artificial and manipulative pricing have replaced it. The commercial paper traders, led by JPMorgan, are involved in a private big money speculative trading war with other speculative traders called technical funds and that war, because it is so much larger at times, is dictating the price of silver to everyone else in the real world – miners, users and physical investors. That's why so many are scratching their heads trying to explain the price swoon this week – it made no sense from a real world perspective. While I was quite upset with the circumstances of this week's smash, I certainly was not scratching my head as to how it occurred. Hopefully, that goes for you as well. I'll have much more to say after the usual review.

As I have been reporting, the signals from the real world of physical silver have been unusually bullish in that they all point towards tightness. The signals from the paper market have been bearish, mainly in the form of JPMorgan's large concentrated short position. This remains the one negative in silver against a wide array of positives. It came down to which was going to dominate the other in the short term, as in the long term the physical world will win out. It still comes down to paper versus physical to my mind. Clearly, the crooks at JPMorgan and the CME had their way with the price this week, with the wimps and incompetents at the CFTC looking on. It is entirely possible that the crooks may succeed in inducing more technical fund selling with lower prices from here. But there are also increasingly strong signals from the physical silver market that the crooks won't prevail for much longer.

Jim Sinclair

Jim Sinclair shared his view in an e-mail sent out earlier in the week to subscribers of JSMineset. He also admits that price manipulation has been going but confirms once again his long term target.

You cannot fix the problems of the Western Economic system by breaking the telltale thermometer, which is the price of gold.

There is not one professional who does not know sales in extreme volume at a time of low activity internationally have but one purpose, and that is to reduce the price of gold.

Charts and TA in such a manipulated, manufactured market, as understood by you, are totally useless. This is a move of desperation by the Fed via the gold banks based on the false premise that attacking symptoms without meaningful economic intervention is going to cure the problem.

Gold is going to $3500 and above. The US dollar is headed to .7200 and lower.

We are once again giving away greatness by driving gold into the coffers of Asia at bargain process that a powerful academic bureaucrat has selected. It is just that simple.

Nobody said survival from the onslaught of the demons would be easy, but it will be successful.

SGT With Jeff Nielson: Time for Silver & Gold Investors to Abandon Hope?

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 08:06 AM PST

Endless Bankster paper, week after week, month after month, it's enough to make the best of us throw in the towel. The fact is however, it's all an illusion. An elaborate magic trick designed to separate the truth from reality. The Bankster's monopoly money does NOT trump all, and as I point out, the demand [...]
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Indians now investing in Gold coins over jewellery

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 08:00 AM PST

Gold prices have hit record highs in India in recent months because the rupee has weakened against the US dollar, which pushes prices up in local currency terms. Consumer sentiment has also weakened amid slowing economic growth and high inflation.

Kyrgyzstan urges people to take up Gold mining

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 07:53 AM PST

Faster companies are going to recruit Kyrgyz citizens than more points they get during tender,according to the state agency.

Gold Bull Market to Pause in 2013 – Savant

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 07:33 AM PST

According to CPM Group's Rohit Savant, all of the positive fundamental drivers of the metal have already been factored into the price.

GARTMAN gold etf's!

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 07:04 AM PST

ha ha!

i think i'll split my money between the gartman gold fund and the sheila jackson lee real estate fund

http://www.indexuniverse.com/section...gold-etfs.html

AdvisorShares, the Bethesda, Md.-based fund sponsor known for actively managed ETFs, filed paperwork with U.S. regulators to market four gold ETFs in a strategy that will be directly linked to Dennis Gartman's market expertise.

In a rather unusual filing, AdvisorShares detailed four ETFs, the first of them being a broad fund-of-funds international portfolio that will likely comprise the other three ETFs listed in the filing, each of which are also fund-of-funds themselves.

The main fund—the AdvisorShares International Gold ETF (NYSEArca: GLDE)—will be a fund-of-funds strategy that will invest in other exchange-traded products that tap into the international gold market, AdvisorShares said in the filing. The portfolio will consist primarily of long positions in these various ETPs.

Among the ETFs considered as possible investments for GLDE are three other actively managed funds AdvisorShares is also putting into the regulatory pipeline. Those funds are:
•Gartman Gold/Yen ETF (NYSEArca: GYEN)
•Gartman Gold/British Pound ETF (NYSEArca: GGBP)
•Gartman Gold/Euro ETF (NYSEArca: GEUR)



The three currency-linked Gartman funds are also fund-of-funds strategies that deliver a sort of "gold-financed-in-a-foreign-currency" sort of exposure. Each ETF will acquire gold in the respective currencies—yen, pound and euro—in an effort to provide investors with access to gold while reducing exposure to the dollar.

Treesdale Partners, which will serve as subadvisor to all four ETFs, will be evaluating the gold market on a daily basis, relying primarily on information provided from The Gartman Letter, a daily commentary on global capital markets led by Dennis Gartman.

Jim Rogers: “There’s No Reason For The Government To Manipulate Gold Or Silver, I Don’t Buy It”

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 07:00 AM PST

Bull Market Thinking's Tekoa da Silva has released an interview with commodities guru Jim Rogers. Rogers apparently believes daily waterfall smashes in gold and silver precisely on the COMEX open for a week and a half following the announcement of QE4 are a result of free and natural market forces.  Rogers informed Tekoa that "There's [...]
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Great Christmas lights display in Ohio

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 06:41 AM PST

Amazing Christmas display with 176 channels and 45,000 lights! The show is so popular that it requires a crew of 3 people to manage the traffic.

  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mnk0KjWxgMA 

Gold, Silver to climb back in China

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 05:22 AM PST

Analysts said both gold and silver are expected to climb back in China after a series of events boosted demand for gold as a safe haven asset, especially following the recent decline in prices.

Alasdair Macleod: “We are quite likely to have a failure on COMEX in the silver market”

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 04:00 AM PST

Matterhorn Asset Management's Lars Schall has released an excellent interview with GoldMoney's Alasdair Macleod, discussing the latest take-down of the metals post QE4, the outlook for gold and silver, and cartel manipulation of the metals. Macleod states that massive amounts of physical gold and silver have been flowing to Asia, and that the latest bank [...]
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Silver now shines more than Gold for Malaysian's

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 03:35 AM PST

While the gold price had increased by about 500 per cent, the silver price had jumped about 650 per cent over the past 10 years.

Haiti awards first Gold, Copper mining permits

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 03:18 AM PST

Analysts said the decision will bring a badly needed burst of money to the impoverished Caribbean country of 10 million people where many live on a $1.25 a day.

Gold dips in thin pre holiday trade

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 02:31 AM PST

Spot gold was seen trading at $1654.24 an ounce at 12.00 noon Singapore time while US gold was seen at $1655.34 an ounce on the comex division of nymex.

Streetwise Philanthropy Really Moves People

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 12:00 AM PST

Corporate Social Responsibility has been an integral part of the mining industry for decades. Now Gordon Holmes, an avid junior mining investor and founder of Streetwise Reports/The Gold Report and...

Visit the aureport.com for more information and for a free newsletter

Silver market update

Posted: 23 Dec 2012 11:53 PM PST

Clive Maund

Gold Market Update

Posted: 23 Dec 2012 11:50 PM PST

Clive Maund

The Legend of Chief Namekagons Lost Silver Mine

Posted: 23 Dec 2012 11:00 PM PST

Atthecreation

Khalaf Al Habtoor's autobiography is the must read for any student of Dubai business and politics

Posted: 23 Dec 2012 09:25 PM PST

For an entirely self-made businessman whose group has just been valued at $6 billion and whose other assets must be worth at least another billion, Khalaf Al Habtoor is surprisingly coy about some of the greatest moments in his long and outstandingly successful Dubai business career.

His autobiography published by Motivate Publishing this month does not even mention the sale of a 45 per cent stake in his contruction group to the Australian firm Leighton for $860 million in 2007 at the height of the Dubai building boom. Perhaps he feels this was luck rather than judgement, or maybe it is just a bit embarrassing as he remains a partner with Leighton in a construction concern now worth a lot less than it was then.

$1.6bn hotels

That deal has allowed Mr. Al Habtoor to make his next big move. He is currently building two huge hotel complexes in Dubai costing a total of $1.6 billion. Construction costs are naturally now much lower than in the boom years, he has most of the funding in cash and anyway its a nice job for Al Habtoor-Leighton.

Mr. Al Habtoor was raised in a hut made from palm leaves on the shores of the Dubai Creek, and the best part of this autobiography is the descriptions of Dubai in those days. Mr. Al Habtoor can remember being hungry and by often playing truant missed out on even the most elementary education, a fact that has nonetheless left him a great promoter of education.

In another Arab state you could imagine Mr. Al Habtoor either wasting his time on a pointless political career or doing tolerably well in business. He explains many times in the book how it was Dubai that gave him the chance to become a multi-billionaire. He was in the right place at the right time to say the least.

The poverty-striken Dubai of 20,000 souls of his childhood boomed into a cosmopolitan business hub with a population of two million in just 50 years. Recognized by the Ruler of Dubai as a man who could make things happen, Sheikh Rashid gave Mr. Al Habtoor his big break with a free allotment of land where the old Metropolitan Hotel used to stand on the Sheikh Zayed Road before Mr. Al Habtoor demolished it this year it to make way for his new complex of three Las Vegas-style hotels.

It's fascinating to hear how the original hotel was financed and barely viable in its early years. Of course, once the loans were paid off and Dubai grew around it the hotel became a gold mine as well as a place to entertain the rich and famous.

Rags to riches

Even more curious was the story of how his construction group got started from nothing with barely any capital and staff working on delayed payment terms. That is not something you could do in Dubai today, although it remains a very good place to start a new business with the right idea.

Autobiographies are by their nature a personal statement and perhaps it is disingenuous to expect Mr. Al Habtoor to be more revealing about his recent business moves or to crow over his successes when others have failed so badly. He did not do so well buying two per cent of Barclays Bank in the global financial crisis and modestly prefers to dwell on this episode.

If you are looking for insights into the recent history and politics of the Middle East then you will not be disappointed. Mr. Al Habtoor is a frustrated politician and would love to be called upon to sort out all the problems of the region, and is well known locally as an outspoken columnist.

Maybe that is a lesson. Dubai has diverted the energies of its most able and resourceful nationals into business, not politics, and become much richer in the process. There are quite enough politicians in the Middle East.

Andrew Maguire on Precious Metal Manipulations

Posted: 23 Dec 2012 03:37 PM PST

Famous market whistle blower Andrew Magurie discusses manipulation in the gold and silver markets and the price divergence between Eastern and Western markets. Listen to the KWN interview here: Part I / Part II

Is 90% silver coins a good idea?

Posted: 23 Dec 2012 11:13 AM PST

I've read before that 90% "junk" silver coins have the lowest premiums, but I still have questions about it. With the latest plunge in silver prices, I decided to pick up some yesterday at my local shop. The owner looked up the current price per ounce--$29.96. The melt value of 90% dimes is $2.17. He only charged me that amount plus sales tax!

However, whenever I asked him yesterday or in the past about how much he'd pay for it if I were selling it back to him, I never get a straight answer. He always says something like, "It depends on what the market is doing at the time". When I ask, "What if I was selling to you right now?" He says pretty much the same thing and finds a way to change the subject.

So yes, the buy price is good, but has anyone had experience in selling them? What should I expect when selling?

Silver Update: Mini Flash Crash

Posted: 23 Dec 2012 10:30 AM PST

BrotherJohnF's latest Silver Update: Mini Flash Crash   2013 Silver Eagles As Low as $2.59 Over Spot at SDBullion!  
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