It’s one of the rarest metals on the planet… 30 times more rare than gold. It takes... Read More

It’s one of the rarest metals on the planet… 30 times more rare than gold. It takes anywhere from 7 to 12 million tons of raw ore to produce a single ounce of the metal. In 2009, miners... Read More

If a CEO oversaw this sort of performance, they’d be ridden out on a rail. A fund manager?... Read More

If a CEO oversaw this sort of performance, they’d be ridden out on a rail. A fund manager? You better expect a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation and prison time. But... Read More

For a decade, you’ve heard the glowing stories: enormous GDP growth, massive infrastructure... Read More

For a decade, you’ve heard the glowing stories: enormous GDP growth, massive infrastructure building — even 15-story hotels being built in six days… China’s growth is... Read More

For the courageous souls willing to jump into stocks in March 2009, it’s been a bonanza: The S&P 500 has risen about 90% since then, equating to annual gains of more than 40%. But this widely-held index has been a loser if you go farther back. In the past… Read More

Pop Quiz: This versatile metal, which is light enough to float on water and soft enough to be cut with a knife, has commercial applications ranging from pharmaceuticals to rocket fuel. If you said lithium, go to the head of the class — and bonus points… Read More

Emerging market investing focuses largely on Brazil, Russia, India and China, or namely the BRIC countries. As it turns out, an entire continent also has quite a bit of growth appeal. And the fact that it is still in the early growth stages means that smart investors still have time… Read More

There’s a big debate in the commodities world: Which is a better investment, gold or silver? Gold usually gets much of the fanfare and stronger returns. But this was not the case last year, as silver surged 81%. Gold was only able to muster a 28% increase. Read More

As we enter 2011, investing abroad has become awfully tricky. Emerging market economies have been the shining stars of the past few years, and many of their stock markets have been on a tear. As I noted a few weeks ago,  some of them have seen their markets double in… Read More

[This is a continuation of “10 Bold Predictions for 2011: Part 1”] 6. Individual investors finally start to re-enter U.S. equities in a major way in 2011 as the need to build savings in the face of looming retirements becomes a major consumer concern, and rising savings levels… Read More

The remarkable run in gold and silver prices this year has had me thinking lately — particularly silver’s run. Recently, gold’s poorer cousin reached 30 year highs, with prices reaching $30 per ounce on the futures market. It reminded me of a story… Read More