People love easy money; especially now since it's not as easy to come by as it used to be. What if I told you that there's an incredibly easy way to earn from $300-$500 on any given Saturday or Sunday this summer with the following characteristics?

• No barrier to entry
• No overhead required (minimal equipment you could borrow)
• Unregulated
• Low/No Risk of Litigation (no insurance required)
• No Qualifications or Skills Required
• It's Easy
• You get to enjoy beautiful weather and venues
• Flexible Hours
• It's legal (I think? And if not; it's not prosecuted that I know of)
• ...And it's not a Multi-Level Marketing scheme!
  

So, we were at a pretty large local park last weekend. It was "Dog Day" apparently - even though we didn't bring our dog, since 3 kids under 5 is enough for the two of us. Anyway, it attracted thousands of people. The park is fairly large and there are multiple parking areas. There was a particular section of the park with tents serving food and drinks. However, in order to get to that section of the park, it was a pretty long haul for us. After climbing rocks and exploring along the river as children love to do, it was time for a snack and we opted to go grab a pretzel or something.

As I was making my way toward the tents across the other side of the park, there was a guy at a pinchpoint near the bridge with a cart full of giant pretzels and water bottles on ice. People pay for convenience (save money when you stop paying for convenience!). I could have ventured all the way across the park only to find that the food options were even more expensive, so he had me.

It was a simple getup, all on one cart, and in my estimation, conservatively, he was netting over $100 an hour for what he was doing. He was selling pretzels at $3 each or 2 for $5 and selling water bottles for $3 each. I had to wait in line to grab 2 pretzels for the family and shell out my 5 bucks; he was doing about 2 transactions per minute. Here's my conservative estimate of his profit with assumptions on cost of goods sold:

• Water bottles = $.50 each; $2.50 profit each
• Pretzels = $1 each; $1.50 profit each in worst case where everyone buys 2
• Optimal time to sell ~11AM-3PM = 4 hours work
• Each hour, I assume he sold 100 water bottles = $250
• Each hour, I assume he sold 100 pretzels = $150

In my estimation, he was earning a profit of $400 per hour. For a 4 hour day, that's $1600

How could this be replicated?

• Every weekend, there are festivals and other attractions at local parks all over the country. Find the biggest ones, consider whether you think this would be a good venue and go.
• Buying water bottles in bulk is easy. Same with ice. Using your own, or borrowing several coolers and storing in your car on ice should provide ample storage space to stock up and go back for a refill as needed.
• Find a large scale pretzel supply. Or it doesn't even have to be pretzels. Perhaps it's fruit or junk food or whatever. I'd stay away from trying to go with meats, etc, as that's a much more involved proposition and may involve more liability from a food poisoning standpoint, etc.
  

As outlandish or oversimplified as this may sound, upon considering the requirements here, I don't think it's much more involved than that. I didn't see a single law enforcement officer and I don't think there are "food police" at these parks, and if worse came to worse and you were asked to leave for not having a license or something, just go to your backup park or sell in the parking lot. What's the worst that can happen? The waters are non-perishable and you might lose some inventory in pretzels.

What are you thoughts? Is this feasible, and do you have any ideas like this for easy money this summer?

Money-Saving Articles:

Save Hundreds per Year with Cash Back Credit Cards

How I Saved $250/Year for Life with Comcast

Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone to Save Money Daily



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When I initially posted about swine flu stocks and investments likely to benefit from the worsening news out of Mexico and the US this weekend, I anticipated some additional follow through from Friday, but nothing like what we saw at the open Monday. Some of the shares mentioned continued to rally over 100% in pre-market trading, seemingly reaching a peak right at the open, then slowly drifting back toward a still impressive but much muted gain.


Vaccine Player is Dominant


One of the most prominent players was Novavax (NVAX) on claims that they can turn around a vaccine in adequate supply than seemingly any other outfit. As evidenced in this 2 day candlestick chart, toward the close Friday, shares rocketed up close to 100% at the end of Friday's trading session and followed through more in after-hours. With all the buzz and anticipation of Monday's open, shares opened at an astounding $3.88 from an open of $0.80 at Friday's open for a return of close to 600% for those savvy enough to sell at the open Monday.


But what a disappointment for those of us buying in the AM pre-market session or worse, at the open. Shares gradually fell to $2.50 per share, resulting in a decline of over 30% during the actual trading session. Paradoxically, shares rallied again in After Hours Monday another 16% to $2.95.



Other Swine Flu Investments

Aside from my thoughts on non-stock swine flu investment plays, tickerspy did a pretty neat job of pulling together an index of companies rallying on the news. They've dubbed this list the Swine Flu and Bird Flu Stocks Index. Here's a screen shot of today's trades in the 16 stock index:




Other Sectors

As evidenced by this neat graphical representation of today's sector behavior via the Map of the Market, while the overall indices were only down nominally at less than 1%, there was a major divergence between health shares (up big) and many other sectors, namely airlines, casino and entertainment stocks (for obvious reasons). For instance, Carnival was down 13.5% on the day. Presumably, investors are trading on the notion that the prospect of 3000 passengers stuck in a confined vessel for a week during a pandemic flu outbreak may not be palatable.



In overseas trading Monday night, while travel shares continued to decline, major indices were actually back up. Since this situation will take weeks or months to evolve (no pun intended), you'll likely see spurts up and down as news trickles in. For instance, the fact that existing antivirals are effective against the flu is a welcome sign. The fact that no deaths have occurred in healthy individuals in the US yet makes one question whether this was one of the largest overreactions in recent history. However, counter that with the first news (should it hit) that existing therapies are no longer effective, the strain has mutated enough that it's now more virulent and contagious than the strain we're seeing now, and we may be in for more major swings just like we saw Friday and Monday.

What does today's session show? Everybody thought they could make some quick easy money on this trade (myself included) and it's likely that a select few made a 1 day windfall which was subsidized by the retail investor.

Disclosure: Long NVAX with May 2.50 puts.


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I like to publish the prior week's hottest ETFs to share some new trends and niche ETFs out there. As it turns out, this week, the hot ETFs were virtually all metals related, so in this edition, you'll get some exposure to some obscure instruments aside from the standard straight 1x Gold play. A nice side benefit of various metals returns is the lower correlation to equities returns and in some cases, inflationary/global boom correlation. This week, you'll want to watch these Swine Flu Stocks and what happens to major indices as the situation evolves.

AGQ - Up 18.1% - ProShares Ultra Silver - This is a 2X leveraged ETF tracking the return of silver. The ETF was up nicely for the week, but is well of its high in February.


JJT - Up 15.1% - Barclays iPath Tin - This one's actually an ETN which carries ETN specific risks to consider, but as far as I've seen, it's the only pure play on Tin, which rallied significantly last week.


GDX - Up 11.9% - Market Vectors Gold Miners - This is an index of publicly traded companies comprising the AMEX Gold Miners index which includes the majority of major gold and silves mining companies that are publicly traded. Personally, if I'm looking for a gold play, I prefer to buy the underlying investment (GLD is a 1x Gold ETF) rather than subject myself to operational variability of the subject companies. Sometimes the companies outperform gold, sometimes vice versa.


DGP - Up 11.4% - DB Gold Double Long - This is a leveraged play on gold bullion, but note that it's an ETN. The ETN is meant to return double the price movement in gold bullion. See the next item for a more widely traded instrument:


UGL - Up 10.8% - Proshares Ultra Gold - Essentially the same play as DGP, but it's an ETF. While the prospects of a 2x return sound appealing, make sure you're familiar with the ins and outs of leveraged ETFs and the fact that over long periods of time, the shares of these ETFs tend to perform at less than 2x as value is eroded due to daily balancing in volatile markets.


Disclosure: I am long UGL, but my inflationary play hasn't come to fruition as soon as anticipated. I may move into a straight 1X like GLD since the leveraged ETFs don't make the best long term investment due to fees and volatility losses from daily averaging.



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As similarly outlined in my Lesson in Volatility prior to Google Earnings article last week where a quick $810 could have been made overnight with no cash outlay (unmitigated risk on either side was assumed though!), the same play would have worked out nicely for Apple this week. Following Apple's earnings, the pundits and investors alike seemed pleased, but so much so that a sold put and sold call combination would have been unprofitable. To recap the rationale on the Google example which aptly applied here to Apple this week as well...

By Selling a Put option and a Call option simultaneously ~$10 from the current share price, investors netted an $175 gain in a single day, even though shares moved up following the earnings announcement!...

The options (see this article on How Options Work: Puts and Calls) on both the call (long side) and the put (short side) dropped in value the next day, even though shares rose 3.2% ($3.89) in trading.

How could the call option DROP in value as shares are rising??? Simply put, leading into the earnings announcement, implied volatility on AAPL options was somewhat high, and then following the announcement, it dropped off because the news was out. Put another way, just prior to earnings, investors figured there’s a chance that shares would skyrocket, hence they were willing to pay more money for an “out of the money” call option at the $130 strike thinking that perhaps shares would zoom right past and they could pocket the difference. When the earnings announcement was met with a yawn though, the likelihood of that scenario deteriorated quickly, hence, the much lower price.

Since AAPL was trading at $121 at the close, a trader could have sold the $130 call for 3.00 and sold the $120 put for 2.36 Wednesday toward the end of trading. On Thursday, the same call was worth .16 less and the put was worth 1.59 less for a quick $175. Of course with trading costs and taxes, nothing to write home about, but this play is scalable and the Google play with a similar strategy was much more lucrative at $810 in a single day for 10% on either side.


Disclosure: Currently long GOOG shares with a credit spread and long AAPL with a covered call (currently in the money; will have to reconcile before too long). I did not partake in either play, but this morning, following AT&T's earnings announcement where they cited strong iPhone revenue, my Premium Twitpub subscribers got an alert to consider a long position (or this play) in APPL which had earnings due out later in the day.


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While Apple had some impressive earnings today (this volatility play pre-earnings would have worked out nicely like it did last week for Google) given the current downturn slamming so many other stocks, Apple had the misfortune of falling prey to a PR gaffe on the same day. While this one will blow over quickly due to their rapid response and lack of resistance, this to me, is the epitome of poor judgment, a lack of adequate oversight/controls and a clear misstep from the company often viewed as above the fray and the white knight alternative to Microsoft's "evil empire".

As reported today here, Apple actually put up a a game on its iTunes store with a premise that by shaking the hell out of your phone, you can quiet a baby displayed on the screen. The name of the game is "Baby Shaker". Once one finishes shaking the device, the on-screen baby is shown with large red Xs over its eyes. This is just plain stupid. I realize that sometimes, you have Abercrombie & Fitch courting controversy by putting nude teenagers together in erotic poses or you have Britney Spears showing her vagina; these are "seemingly outrageous gaffes" by companies and celebrities that are actually meant to generate buzz, and in the long term, these seemingly outrageous publicity stunts actually result in an increase to the bottom line (and were planned ALL the way back).

This gaffe resulted in no such "coolness factor buzz" or the like. The company that created the game is just plain stupid. The person or group of people responsible for approving and hosting the game at Apple demonstrated a lack of judgment and brought embarrassment to their company. You mean to tell me that not one person that signed off on this said, "You know, this is really tasteless and frankly, it's not going to be a positive for our company - this is going to offend a lot of people and be a net negative for us"? Aren't there review, controls and approvals in place before something like this hits the iTunes store? Was there a single parent or adult even, that's seen what happens to infants on the local news? The death or permanent brain damage imparted to a child as a result of vigorous shaking is somehow humorous or hip? I get that these artsy designers want to be edgy or whatever. What they ended up with was a moronic backfire. What's next? Noose and holocaust games? I mean come on.

Like I said, I think that given the fact that they pulled it down immediately and didn't try to retroactively turn this into some sort of "cause" or marginalize the outrage from organizations and parents alike by ignoring their concerns, Apple will soon get a pass on this. It's not characteristic of their organization over the long term. However, they really need to rethink their process for vetting what's hip versus what's tasteless and avoid similar missteps in the future that may derail their reputation.


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There's been an emerging news story in the past few weeks highlighting how even seemingly low risk borrowers are being turned away for refinancing and new mortgage deals by banks and small mortgage outfits alike. This is surprising on one hand since they're passing up lucrative fees, especially in light of Obama's recent reward programs. On the other hand, this must say something about the perception of the risk in the borrower pool. Today, CBSMarketwatch ran this story asking banks to just fess up and say they're not lending instead of trying to appease politicians and angry Americans.

Yesterday, I heard a piece on CNBC they had guests on saying that with regard to FICO scores, 760 is the new 720 (read about why knowing your FICO score is critical and how to improve yours) and get this - if you've EVER had a negative amortization (also referred to as pick-a-pay or option ARM), you can't get a refinancing deal at most outfits. This is actually pretty alarming. If you made every payment on time and have plenty of cash in the bank and verifiable income, apparently, the thinking is that because you took on that kind of loan in the past, you're now viewed as a higher credit risk. I hate when groups of people are punished for bad behavior in a subset.

What are you seeing out there? Can you get a loan?

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Relevant Articles:

Mortgage Rate Record Again - How to Get the Best Deal

Net Present Value: Why You Should Use it in Everyday Life (mortgage example)

Is it Ethical to Re-Lock your Mortgage Deal when Rates Drop?

4.2% Mortgage Rates on the Horizon Says Study

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Here are a few random thoughts and topics I thought you'd enjoy.

First, there's been some buzz today about a study showing a correlation between sun spots and GDP, which in turn reflects on stock market returns (generally, shares don't do very well entering a recession). Here's a screen shot of the data which looks to be very compelling from a correlation standpoint. Note how recessions tend to occur as sunspots peak. Of course, correlation does not mean causation. And, of course, if there's anything to it, efficient market theory dictates that smart investors will net out any true phenomena here by the next cycle or so. But it's an interesting read nonetheless.Source article here.

I also posted some good stuff over at Darwin's Finance over the past few days.

• You won't want to miss this one:
  A Lesson in Volatility prior to Earnings Releases: Google Options

And, here's my "Best Weekly Link Roundup" Teabagger Edition, where I take aim at the liberal elite (well, the videos posted should bring shame upon them, but then again, these are shameless individuals) who this week stereotyped Americans who are fed up with the failed unnecessary bailouts, generational crimes we’re committing against our children and disingenuous behavior from our elected officials as: “rednecks”, “right wing zealots” or, get this, “racists”.

Also,

• 6 Prudent Uses for your Tax Refund This Year
• How to Invest in Cuba - Does Obama’s Cuba Deal Spell Gains?
• 7.25% Tax-Protected Guaranteed Return - Would You Take It?

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I like to publish the prior week's hottest ETFs to share some new trends and niche ETFs out there. As it turns out, since we don't see the same sector dominating the runup each week (aside from 3X Financials most weeks of late), each week, I introduce at least one obscure ETF that may provide some strong returns and lower correlation with the ever popular S&P500, Nasdaq and Financial ETFs. For instance, consider the newly launched Colombia ETF which portends to grow rapidly if history is any indicator from its sole US ADS previously, this closed end fund looking to focus on warming ties to CUBA, and the Carbon Trading ETF and Solar Energy ETF in these similar best-prior week ETF articles. For the prior week:

BHH - Up 17% B2B Internet Holders - This internet ETF is actually up over 40% vs a small loss for the S&P500 YTD. In prior downturns, we saw tech get hammered, but surprisingly, this time around, tech had no direct role in the market euphoria and these companies seemed to have learned a thing or two about living without excessive costs and holding cash. Tech may very well continue to outperform if we're looking at a slow recovery in financials and housing.

JJN - Up 16% Barclays iPath Nickel - Note, this is an ETN which has slightly different properties than an ETF. But for a pure play on nickel which is a barometer for both industrial activity and currency generation, this ETN seeks to replicate the Dow Jones-AIG Nickel Total Return Sub-Index index which is composed of the Primary Nickel futures contract traded on the London Metal Exchange.

PSR - Up 16% Powershares Active US Real Estate - This is an "actively managed ETF" which may sound like a bit of a misnomer. The fund will invest at least 80% of assets in securities of companies that are principally engaged in the U.S. real estate industry and included within the FTSE NAREIT Equity REITs Index. It is free to utilize the balance of the assets for additional exposure to other real estate or alter the weighting of its holdings. With a higher expense ratio of .8% than its passively managed brother VNQ at .1%, it will be interesting to see if the ability to add some actively managed positions to the ETF outweigh the .7% difference in expense ratios.

IDX - Up 15% Market Vectors Indonesia ETF - I hadn't even heard of this newly launched ETF: Indonesia has been on fire, as have many of the emerging market ETFs, which also fell much harder than the US. In the past month alone, this ETF is up over 40% compared to about 12% for the S&P500. As highlighted earlier, there are some other lesser-known emerging market ETFs, like the newly launched Colombia investment focused ETF and one then there's the CUBA investment closed end fund that returned 40% in a single day recently (but note, it doesn't have any direct holdings in Cuba!)

SEA - Up 14% Claymore/Delta Global Shipping - This ETF seeks to replicate the performance of the Delta Global Shipping index, which is really a play on the return to global trade and recovery. In February, the ETF fell much more rapidly than the S&P500, but then rocketed back more quickly from March onward, up over 25% in the past month vs. 12% for the S&P500.


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Through a rather obscure screening, I came across a relatively small company that has increased its dividends for 24 consecutive quarters, including another announcement this week. Now that spreads are shrinking on the high yield muni bond mania and with high yield corporate bond ETFs priced for Depression era defaults, this stock offers a nice mix of both low risk, sustained performance and a yield higher than what you can get in Treasuries or CDs.

Healthcare Services Group (HCSG) provides services like housekeeping and food services to nursing home and other healthcare institutions. While this may not sound like a sexy line of work, its performance, dividend history and outlook is surely attractive.

With a market capitalization of under $1Billion and virtually no press and only 2 analysts covering the stock, the yield stands at 4.3%. What's going to continue to power this stock though, is sustained dividend increases in the face of a very harsh environment. They're on a streak here and the management intends on keeping these dividend increases going. While the proverbial "recession-proof"/"defensive" healthcare sector proved to be anything but in the recent downturn, this particular niche actually appears to hold true to the stereotype. In fact, Healthcare Services Group is doing so well, not only is it increasing its dividend every quarter, but it also just announced an acquisition: Contract Environmental Services, one of their competitors. With the well-known graying of America and cost pressures on healthcare providers, the business outlook is quite strong for HCSG.

As evidenced below, HCSG as delivered outsized returns of over 150% over the past 5 years versus a loss for the S&P500. And this wasn't hand-selected. During the most recent 1 year period, where the S&P500 lost close to 40%, HCSG gained close to 20% (plus dividends!).

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photo credit

Well, it's been an interesting day and rather than subjecting you (and me) to multiple posts on multiple topics, I'm rolling several thoughts into a condensed post here.

For anyone that hasn't been frequenting a cave today, it was the final day to file your taxes for 2008 and what a day to protest our government's insatiable appetite for bailouts, pandering, future tax increases and the shameful debt that we are inevitably leaving upon our children with tea parties throughout the country (read:Generation Debt: Our Children will Hate Us). Well, even though we've continued to throw good money after bad, it's looking as though bankruptcy is in the near future for GM. Not to say I told you so: GM - Not One to Say "I Told You So" and Congress Should Allow GM to Fail: Here's Why. It was obvious to me as far back as 2008 that this was inevitable and I laid out the appropriate method to do so in a controlled manner that would minimize the impact to the company and the economy, but what do I know. Oh, wait a minute; I don't stand to benefit from thousands of union votes, so I guess I don't have the same incentives to burden our childrens' generation with debt they don't deserve in order to prolong the life of a zombie company with no chance of survival without TRUE reorganization and concessions. What a joke, this line that the politicians sold us that we just have to keep shoveling money down a rat hole for these jokers.

Typical Media Bias on Tea Parties

It's always interesting to see how networks so shamefully advance their own agendas with news coverage of the same event. The ultra-left wing MSNBC has the typical coy arrogant mocking of any Americans protesting the spending spree by calling them, "teabaggers" (like Maddow even knows what that means prior to her producers' recommendation to joke about it) and acting like they're above it all. They forgot that plenty of Dems are pissed off too. You know, the ones that work hard and will have to pay higher taxes and see their children struggle in a wrecked country as well. Rachel Maddow's up there insinuating that they're a bunch of right wing nuts. I don't know, I don't see Rachel mocking civil rights protesters or the gay marriage advocates during the California ballot initiative. You have her and Olberman giving impassioned pleas with a teary eye to support their causes; shaming anyone who disagreed with those protestors.

But, Americans protesting the complete transformation of our country from a capitalistic, meritocracy to a socialistic mediocracy must be a bunch of nuts.

Then of course, there's Fox. They bring out all kinds of gun owners and religious folks to rally their base and get people fired up about the direction the country's going in (what their guests had to do with taxes and debt is beyond me, but Glenn Beck found a way to weave a storyline in there somehow). It's all fun and games. I just use my blog here to express my continual displeasure over the destruction of the motivated, successful, risk-taking, rewarded working class.

TwitPub

What is TwitPub? In a nutshell, Twitpub a premium twitter service. That's jargon for "paid". It's an innovative idea that was bound to occur sooner or later. Since twitter's not making much money itself, why not jump on the wagon and try to monetize it. As such, Twitpub collects 20% of any revenues it facilitates in sales of premium tweets. Who would pay for tweets? Well, perhaps paying for the musings of what someone ate for lunch today or what they're wearing doesn't warrant any sales, I would envision investors would be an optimal interested group. Just the other day, I had posted on how my twitter followers could have made 285% in a day with my options call. Also in March, I had tweeted on a mass move in CEDC which has now been running to the tune of over 500% on my options play (article and tweet note in the link). I also put out a tweet on the CUBA deal following Obama's move toward better relations with Cuba. Granted, I didn't get back out in time there, but at least I highlighted a huge 40% trend that continued through After Hours trading that folks could have caught. For $.99 a month, why not get the premium tweets that your top investor bloggers put out? I signed up my premium tweets under the "Business and Investing" section as DarwinsTrades. I put my first trading update out there tonight. Why not check it out. Essentially, for $12 a year (the cost of a single trade), you can follow real time trades and you make the call on which ones you want to follow. Click on the rather large link on either this blog or Darwin's Finance and it will walk you through the steps.

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Here's an interesting battle between Mike Morgan, a blogger I follow, and Goldman. He's taken a pretty harsh stance toward their tactics and leadership and now he's getting legal threats from them - according to this article, they've hired a firm to try and shut him down. Unlike my battle with ShopToEarn via cease and desist letters, where I backed off a bit for varying reasons (but note my 2009 Shop To Earn Update is generating plenty of controversy), this guy's not backing down. Check out what he has to say at GoldmanSachs666.

What do you think, is he on to something?

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The iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) has been showing impressive performance on many fronts and may very well continue to reward investors that are early to the party quite handsomely. Not only has it outperformed the S&P500, but its dividend yield is significantly higher, at 12% vs 3.3% for the S&P500. Many economists have been touting how corporate and municipal bonds are trading at Depression scenario prices and anyone believing that we're not headed for a repeated disaster should be snatching up shares now.

Update: I've listed 15 High Yield Corporate Bonds Update at Darwin's Finance.

A look at the top 10 holdings - it's refreshing to see the the ETF isn't comprised primarily of Financials, which is what dealt a death blow to many high yield stock ETFs.


Chs / Cmnty Health Sys 8.875%
CROWN AMERS
CSC HLDGS INC
Davita 7.25%
DIRECTV HLDGS LLC / DIRECTV
Dollar Gen 10.625%
Intelsat 11.25%
L-3 Comms 6.375%
Peabody Engy 7.375%
Windstream 8.625%

Monthly Dividends - As evidenced below, the ETF pays dividends monthly and for the most part, the trend has been continually higher, even in the face of a decline in share value and the global market tumult.

1-Apr-09	$ 0.806 Dividend
2-Mar-09	$ 0.719 Dividend
2-Feb-09	$ 0.753 Dividend
29-Dec-08	$ 0.524 Dividend
1-Dec-08	$ 0.698 Dividend
3-Nov-08	$ 0.69 Dividend
1-Oct-08	$ 0.69 Dividend
2-Sep-08	$ 0.62 Dividend
1-Aug-08	$ 0.663 Dividend
1-Jul-08	$ 0.651 Dividend
2-Jun-08	$ 0.634 Dividend

So, investors faced with the prospect of trying to get an 8-11% yield on Advanta's high yield investment notes (albeit with their own set of risks) vs. what's remaining from the 37 High Yield MegaCaps List vs. this high yield corporate bond ETF such as HYG with the aforementioned accoutrement's demonstrate that this market is offering various means of achieving double digit returns over long periods of time if they have the risk tolerance.

Disclosure: No current position in HYG, but considering for high yield IRA account in the future.


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After receiving a few requests here and there and posting a few guest posts recently (and doing some myself on other blogs), I wanted to remind readers/bloggers/anyone that wants to rant - that you can feel free to contact me to post an article to let the readers here learn a bit more about you (my other blog, Darwin's Finance has a slightly different tilt to Finance and Investing; we'll work out the appropriate outlet upon discussion of topic). Given the hundreds of RSS/Email readers and 20K+ page views per month within my network, it's a decent way get your brand in front of some new people interested in Finance and Investing.

Only a few requirements:

• Relevant content (obviously), no MLM schemes, overt advertisements or spammy content. It's all about the readers!
• Content of roughly the same quality you see here (that's not saying much :>)
  
• No links within the article, I'll publish bio and link back to your blog/site at the close
• The submission must be totally original. By submitting, you are providing your assurance that you are the original author and it has not been published at any other outlet prior to its publication here. Once it goes live here, you agree to wait 1 week to either summarize the guest post or republish as you see fit.

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20% in 3 Weeks...Anyone say Capitulation?

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According to CNBC, economists Bank of America-Merrill Lynch is anticipating 30-year mortgage rates could fall to nearly 4 percent by the end of the 2009. Apparently, they derived this assumption from various models they employ in house coupled with anticipated unemployment data and housing recovery estimates.

Refinance Now or Wait?

This really begs the question as to whether you should Refi Now and get a great rate or wait it out so you're not left with "mortgage envy" when your neighbor has a 4.2% rate and you have 4.625%. Personally, I'm of the camp that rates are so low now that if you have the resources, the credit and the spread from your current rate to justify it, do it now. If you do lock and rates continue to drop, it begs the question as to whether you should break your lock, which is covered here. If you are looking to refi, make sure you consider the Net Present Value of various mortgage options

I also started by getting several quotes on line and using this Mortgage Calculator to at least establish a baseline from various lenders. I'd also started a reader-generated forum of their rate deals for an independent source.

Regarding this prediction by BofA/Merrill, be mindful that these are among the same outfits that engaged in mortgage backed securities deals where the underlying models assumed housing prices would continue to climb at above-inflation annual rates for eternity so homeowners would always be able to pay, which was obviously unrealistic.

Related:

Toll 3.99% Mortgages - What’s the Catch?


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With the Fed Funds Target Rate essentially at 0%, it's difficult to find a decent CD rate these days. However, most savings rates are even worse, so I did a scan of various outlets and ads touting the highest yield CD rates during the month of April and for various time periods, here are the highest yielding CDs I could find. Feel free to comment here this month if you have anything better.

3 Month CD - 1.75% at Vantage Point Bank
6 Month CD - 2.26% at Corus Bank
12 Month CD - 2.71% at Corus Bank
24 Month CD - 3.00% at Vantage Point Bank (this is a special offer, call 267-464-7667)
36 Month CD - 3.2% at Vantage Point Bank and also 3.2% at GMAC bank
5 Year CD - 3.50% at Intervest National Bank

If you think you're going to need your money within the next 6 months and may not make the full 6 month market for the 2.26% at Corus, you might as well put your money in a high yield savings account. Two renowned online banks are offering comparable rates with none of the strings attached: The ING rate is 1.5% and HSBC is at 1.65%. With 1.5% and 1.65% just a hair shy of the best 3 month CD rate, probably best to just go with savings and have the added flexibility of a savings account and avoid early redemption fees if you have to break the CD. I'm earning 0.25% at Commerce with one of my accounts due to local presence necessity, but I just move it right over when a few hundred bucks accumulate.

A few related articles you may find interesting:

Beware the Bait and Switch SmackDown: High Savings Rates, Free Trades and Credit Cards
7% CD Yields Raising Eyebrows
Highest Yielding CDs and Money Markets December 2008 (look how high these yields were just a few months ago!)
Everything you Need to Know to Lock in the Best Refi/Mortgage Deal

RECORD LOWS on Mortgage/Refi Rates - Compare your Savings and get Free Quotes: Mortgage Calculator


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I can't make this stuff up. First, the BBC actually sponsored a study to analyze shopping patterns versus womens' menstrual cycles. And then...the results came in with a decent statistical correlation between a woman's tendency to shop 10 days before her period vs. other times of the month. According to the experts, they believe "shopping could be a way for premenstrual women to deal with the negative emotions created by their hormonal changes."

Why would I publish such a "sensational" article?

Well, there's no doubt in my mind that marketers will in some way try to capitalize on this trend. At the risk of offending anyone, I'll withold conjecture or my novice marketing ideas - but where there's a will, there's a way, and I'm sure there's some innovative marketing executive out there looking to turn this into some sort of campaign to exploit this supposed phenomena...and you heard it here first. For a positive spin, a profession interviewed stated that, "if women were worried about their spending behaviour they might avoid going shopping in the week before their period was due."

The article doesn't detail all the statistics, but on the radio today, I heard some more details which made a more compelling case. Is is typical, the story was dumbed down to the lowest denominator, so anyone interested in analyzing the actual data is left wondering whether the snippet reported was due to sampling error or legitimate.

If you like this sort of study and trending, check out my book review of MicroTrends, where you'll find some pretty amazing trends you never would have imagined.

I was also early to report that Inflation is Sexist.


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A few months ago, I made the switch over to WordPress and started a new blog, Darwin's Finance: Financial Evolution. If you only subscribe to Everyday Finance, you're missing some unique content that's worth checking out - I have a different focus for each blog, so there's very little overlap; you can add it to your reader or have articles emailed to you by clicking here. Anyway, Google just completed its most recent Page Rank Update, which they only do a few times per year. Within the time that I launched earlier in the year and this first Page Rank Update, Darwin's Finance went from zero to 3. Additionally, traffic's been building at a rate of several thousand additional page views per month as evidenced by the chart below. This is great news for the blog, and is a testament to the momentum that's building there.




Why am I sharing this? Well, for one, I'd like readers here to experience and follow both blogs, not just for my benefit, but for the interaction, collaboration and other benefits inured by the content at both sites. For instance, in my recent March Madness - Top 32 Posts of 2009, I shared some content from both sites and I'm sure there will be at least a couple of interest/utility to readers and fellow bloggers. Why else am I sharing this?...

For you BlogSpot Bloggers out There

As you may know, Everyday Finance is a Google Blogger-hosted domain. Some of the benefits of using Blogger are easy/quick startup, easy to manipulate and update the template/widgets etc. and of course, it's Free. However, the tradeoff is that there's a ".blogspot" in the url, it isn't self-hosted (at one point, Google took down all my blogs for no apparent reason for a week and then reinstated them; that doesn't happen on your own self-hosted blog), and the Search Engine Optimization leaves something to be desired - the simple fact that the url is so long doesn't help, plus the fact that WordPress has various plugins and settings with can help your search rankings.

Easier than I Thought to Start on WordPress

I was initially intimidated by the loss of the "what you see is what you get" format in Blogger, which required no coding background, etc. I had also purchased the WordPress for Dummies book (which I don't recommend) and was again intimidated by a massive set of steps required in setting up SQL databases and jumping around with FTP and all this other crazy stuff (to me at least, initially). Then, I read a bit more in there and in ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income (which I do recommend) and saw that I could simply do a 1 click install with one of the most popular services out there, DreamHost. They get rave reviews for both setup and service as well as pricing and I can confirm that it was pretty easy to set up and start blogging on WordPress after just coming up with a new domain name and clicking on the 1 step install button. Check it out. If you do sign up and want some perspective/ideas on making the leap to WordPress, just comment here or send me an email and I'd be glad to help.

Oh, and EverydayFinance isn't going anywhere. I have quite a bit of history here, plenty of subscribers, traffic and advertising commitments. so I intend on running this blog the same way I always have; I just have the time to do both now that I finished my MBA and I've become a bit more efficient. So, don't interpret this as the death-knell of EverydayFinance, but rather, a success that I owe to my initial start here.

...And if you enjoy Everyday Finance, you'll love my new blog,Darwin's Finance: Financial Evolution .

RECORD LOWS on Mortgage/Refi Rates - Compare your Savings and get Free Quotes: Mortgage Calculator


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In a week furthering the upward trend in equities, there were a few standout ETFs moving more than 15% for the week. Following last week's post on 5 ETFs up over 20% for the prior week, I thought I'd share some different ETFs that were up big last week. For you momentum investors out there, these may be worth checking out.

URE - Up 32% ProShares Ultra Real Estate - This 2X leveraged ETF rallied on news that home buyers are starting to come out in force, even in some of the hardest hit areas during the real estate collapse.

DZK - Up 21% Direxion Developing Market Bull 3X - This 3X leveraged ETF is capitalizing on the fact that developing markets were hit especially hard over the past year, more so than Western markets, so the rebound is likely to be just as pronounced. The question is whether this new bull market has legs.

EDC - Up 19% - Direxion Emerging Market Bull 3X - Similar story to DZK; I would anticipate that these two ETFs continue to trend roughly the same direction/magnitude.

ASO - Up 18% - Airshares EU Carbon - Here's a good article from Barron's making the case for carbon trading and why this ETF may continue to thrive.

BVT - Up 21% - Elements BG Total Market ETN - The reason I list this one is actually to impact caution. Some of these Elements ETNs are very thinly traded with wide spreads, yet, inexplicably, routinely show huge gains and losses during particular weeks. For instance, this Elements Gold ETN had beaten gold by over 400% in a span of a few weeks, then it feel to earth and is now set to be cancelled.

When this market turns or evens out, it will be interesting to see how some of the newly launched ETFs that are supposed to perform well in any market, like this first Hedge Fund ETF.


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Well, with the major indices up 25% from their bottoms in early March, as bizarre as it sounds, we're in Bull Market territory by definition. As such, I thought I'd share my top 32 Posts from 2009 so far. In no particular order and spanning posts in Investing, Personal Finance and Rants from my blog here, as well as my new blog Darwin's Finance, here are 2009's top posts:

Net Present Value: Why You Should Use it in Everyday Life

To Tip or NOT to Tip: 3 Case Studies - Opinions?

How to Profit from Employee Stock Options Regardless of Share Performance

The Financial Media Makes it up as they Go

Is Now the Time to Short US Treasuries?

Is This the Rebound? A Financials Volatility Play

Why Your FICO Score Matters and What to Do About It

Deal of a Lifetime in Muni Bond Investments?

The Nationalism of America

Is it Ethical to Re-Lock your Mortgage Deal when Rates Drop?

Dow 3700 - $3,500 Gold - $300 Oil...Oh My!

Will Card-Check (Removal of Secret Ballot Union Votes) Kill US Business?

Apple Covered Call Revisited: Same Share Price at $95, but I'm Up $600

How I Saved $250/Year for Life with Comcast

Using Google Search Trends to Exploit Market Moves

If You Thought Americans Suffered This Year...

Case-Shiller Home Price Index Down 18% - How To Invest

Lowest Mortgage Refinance Rate Comparison by the Readers!

Layoffs: You May Be Next - Tips to Avoid, Prepare and React

AIG "Outrage" - Nauseating, Disingenuous and Offensive

Is Now a Good Time to Start Investing in Stocks?

Generation Debt: Our Children will Hate Us

How to Bet on the End of the World as We Know It with Intrade

Tobacco Settlement Money has been Squandered Shamelessly

GM - Not One to Say "I Told You So"

2008 Stock Market Returns by Country and Sector

8 Most Shocking Market Events from 2008

Caps on Wall Street Compensation - Dumb and Ineffective

Beware the Bait and Switch SmackDown: High Savings Rates, Free Trades and Credit Cards

Tax Refund Loans a Ripoff - Not Worth the Rush

Cash Back from Credit Card Time - Where Do Your Rewards Go?

Let's "Spread Those Mortgages" Around

You'll Also Want to Check Out:
Most Popular Articles Ever
Absolute Best Articles from Tons of Bloggers in Personal Finance and Investing

...And if you enjoy Everyday Finance, you'll love my new blog,Darwin's Finance: Financial Evolution .

RECORD LOWS on Mortgage/Refi Rates - Compare your Savings and get Free Quotes: Mortgage Calculator


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About every 3 months I actually get around to spending the 5 minutes to call the number on the credit card statements and redeem our cash back rewards for checks. Within a few days, a few checks roll in ranging from $50 to $150, and culminating in several hundred dollars per year of tax-free income. For doing what? Nothing really. I just signed my wife and I up for the ideal cash back rewards cards a few years back and we've been enjoying the benefits ever since. Obviously, we don't carry a balance, since we lose the benefit of cash back if we're paying much more in monthly interest. But if you have the financial discipline and situation to guarantee that you'll pay the cards off in full monthly, by not taking advantage of cash back credit cards, you're leaving lots of tax-free money on the table each year for virtually no effort.

This index lists several different cash back cards to compare from: CreditCards.com- Cash Back Credit Cards

Additionally, I'd reviewed various cards and shared the Consumer Reports "Best Credit Cards" as well.

Once these checks come in, we deposit the money in our childrens' savings accounts, which in turn have a monthly 529 withdrawal for their future college expenses. Realistically, cash back rewards alone won't pay for Harvard Law, but over 18 years, several hundred dollars per year compounded will add up.

What do you do with your Rewards? (Or What Will You Be Doing with Yours After Finding the Right Card?)

RECORD LOWS on Mortgage/Refi Rates - Compare your Savings and get Free Quotes: Mortgage Calculator

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Sorry for lack of new posts past few days, a new addition to the family and I've been preoccupied; it's a girl! Here are last week's favorite links I had posted at Darwin's Finance for Weekly Links: Capitulation Edition; will have something new up soon!

The Best in Weekly Reads from my favorite blogs in Investing, Personal Finance and Blog Carnivals.

My full article on Market Capitulation was featured at JohnChow.com, one of the largest blogs in the world.

Elsewhere in the blogosphere,

Personal Finance

Eight thoughts for new parents

Fair Tax Pros and Cons

A reminder that Benefits are an important part of your compensation

Interesting Tactic by FedEx to Block the Employee Free Choice Act

Investing

Another Ponzi Scheme.

Inflation - How to Prepare

Will Water Become More Expensive than Oil?

8 Ways to Deal w Volatile Markets

Dr. Doom - We’re not out of the woods yet

Evaluation of firms that marginally beat or miss estimates - love this stuff

Variable Annuities - Fees Considered

My Network at EverydayFinance and Darwin’s Finance

5 ETFs Up 20% This Week

My Twitter Followers that Made 285% in 1 day Today

Trading Update - Recovery Edition II

To Tip or NOT to Tip: 3 Case Studies - Opinions?

Is it Ethical to Re-Lock your Mortgage Deal when Rates Drop?

How to Profit from Employee Stock Options Regardless of Share Performance

Hedge Fund ETF - Will the Performance Live up to the Hype?

Carnivals and Outlets that Included my Articles this week

Carnival of Personal Finance

Carnival of Money Saving Tips

Carnival of Real Estate

Carnival of Everything Home

One Mint

Money Hacks Carnival

Carnival of Twenty Something Finances

A Great List of Weekly Links at Dividends Value

RECORD LOWS on Mortgage/Refi Rates - Compare your Savings and get Free Quotes: Mortgage Calculator


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