Each week, I like to publish the past week's hottest ETFs to share some new trends and niche ETFs out there and give investors some new ideas. For this week, energy and tech were hot. Additionally, real estate stocks had a strong showing; who knows, between low interest rates and the resurgence of the 40 year mortgage loan (and longer-50&60!) to fill the vacuum of poor lending standards that led to the last housing crisis, perhaps we'll finally see a rebound in housing soon and our next bubble before we know it!

ERX -Direxion Daily Energy Bull 3X - Up 18% - This ETF seeks to return 300% of the daily performance of the Russell 1000 Energy Index. This ETF is a routine placement on the weekly list. As long as the trend continues upward, outsized returns will outpace the spot price of oil. However, note that with these daily resetting ETFs as noted above, volatility eats into returns if the trend breaks as outlined here in this explanation of the degredation of value on both sides of the 3X ETF Long/Short play. In other words, if you hang on to these too long, you can lose money on either side of the fence, regardless of what happens to the underlying index.

SEA - Claymore/Delta Global Shipping ETF - Up 14% - With a 9% jump on Friday, this shipping ETF is now up 81% over the prior 3 month period as the cost of shipping materials globally starts to pick up as the credit freeze thaws and global conditions improve. While this ETF has little yield to speak of, the underlying shipping stocks are notorious for delivering high yields due to the cash-rich business they operate in during boom times. Check out Seaspan (SSW), Ship Finance Ltd (SFL) and Frontline (FRO).

TYH - Direxion Daily Technology Bull 3X Shares - Up 14% - Tech has been hot during this rebound as well and contrary to prior bear markets, Tech has held up quite well. For 2009 YTD, this ETF is up 14% vs. a 1% gain for the S&P500. The top 3 underlying holdings are Apple, Cisco and Google. While people may have stopped buying cars and new homes, evidently, they can't do without that new iPhone and companies haven't stopped relying on tech to deliver productivity gains and advertising benefits while they slash spending in virtually all other areas, including payrolls.

AGQ - ProShares Ultra Silver - Up 15% - With a 7% move on Friday, this 2X leveraged ETF tracking the return of silver was up an amazing 58% for the month, as silver had its biggest run in 22 years. AGQ was highlighted in this column earlier in May as well.


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Best of May

Here are my Top 10 Most Popular Articles from the month to help you save money, make better investments or just vent!

40 Year Mortgages - No Wait, 50 and 60 year as well!

The Riskiest ETFs on Earth - 3X Sector ETF Short/Long

10 Ways to be Annoying at Work and Ruin your Career

Start Investing Today: An Amazing Comparison of 25 vs 35 Year Old Starters

Start an Investment Club: How To, Rules and Reality Checks

4 Triple Digit Return Small Caps to Watch

Savings Tips Consumer Reports Style

New Discover Current Card - Like Spying on Your Kids?

Sucker's Rally: For 34% since March, Call Me a Sucker!

How to Save Money with a Contractor - Patio Example

What Else is New?

Make sure to stop by and visit the latest sponsor Short-Stocks.com. In this market, having some short positions is certainly a great way to soften the blow. While I'm net long, I always employ some similar approaches myself to the real time trades Short-Stocks is offering.

Performance at both blogs continues to be great. Traffic is steadily increasing at Darwin's Finance especially and the opportunities for collaboration and new ideas are endless. Unfortunately, I'm limited by time primarily, so the growth rate in new content and ideas is a bit more restrained than I'd desire.

Any feedback on either site, ideas for future posts or anything else on your mind is much appreciated; leave a comment!

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I routinely post about how to save money on everyday expenses by either following simple steps or the more challenging methods requiring you to step outside your comfort zone a bit (see how I saved $250/yr for life with Comcast and how I save money routinely in stores by asking for a discount). Now, dealing with contractors can be a bit more touchy. You're not dealing with a commodity, right? You're not dealing with an abundance of inventory that a store's looking to unload. You're dealing with a skilled tradesman that probably isn't used to hearing price haggling attempts and may have an ego to boot. So, even if you win out, was it worth saving a hundred bucks on a job if the contractor's annoyed over your tactics when they do the job?

The Job

We're having a patio done. I've done a fair amount of jobs myself (like saving thousands on a new kitchen install), but I feel like I've gone to the well on favors from friends and family for helping with big jobs and I'm short on time, so I decided to outsource this one. In order to save on materials, I already moved a fair amount of blue stone/flagstone (whatever it is) from a family member's yard that didn't need it. The patio's a sizable job, at over 600 square feet, plus a wall on the side; not to mention, busting out an existing cement outcropping from a sliding door.

Dealing with the Contractor(s)

We got a few quotes ranging from the low $3000's up to $10,000. Of course, I realized we're not dealing with apples to apples. Each contractor was going to employ a different approach. One guy was laying like 5 different layers of stuff down. Another guy was bringing in heavy equipment; third guy was essentially a kid working by himself who was going to do everything manually, etc. After a few recommendations and some previous work done here, I already knew I wanted Contractor X. He had a crew here earlier in the year to do some landscaping work (I've saved thousands over the years by mowing my own lawn, but this was weeding/mulching job for an incredible price, so the ROI was well worth it to me). Anyway, his price was at the low end of the range, he had a portfolio of completed patios and references to share, I already knew his work and trusted his ethics/business dealings, so at this point, I figured I should just try and get his price a bit lower so I felt I did my job as a price-conscious consumer.

Am I Cheap?

I don't think so. Any entrepreneurial business man is going to quote out his job for the highest possible price he thinks a consumer will pay without walking away. Likewise, a prudent homeowner should have the onus get the lowest price paid while still ensuring the job gets done by the desired contractor in a quality manner. Of course, in this case, the two ranges intersected.

I could tell from his reaction that he didn't usually get counteroffers and that customers usually just went with his quoted amount, but I framed my offer in a respectful, fact-based manner that both allowed him to drop his price a bit, while also allowing him to save face in lowering his price (i.e. one might think that if he were able to lower his price by a single dollar, then he over-quoted me and was taking advantage of me. I don't see it that way, but a contractor is usually reluctant to lower a price once quoted so they can show that they're giving you their best price and not making a lot of money on you, etc.).

The Counteroffer

He mailed me a written quote. In it, he broke out the patio separately from the wall, since I initially wasn't sure I was going to do both. Upon further consideration, I had determined that I wanted to do both, but I withheld that for the negotiation. Now, probably 95% of homeowners either accept the offer as is or don't go with that contractor, so there's rarely a negotiation involved in this type of job. What I did was relay the following information to him:

• He did not offer the most competitive bid (this is PC for you weren't the cheapest, and I used this in my last job with multimillion dollar deals - seems to work), but I was familiar with his work and wanted to see if we could work together anyway...provisionally.
• I wasn't sure if I wanted to do the wall as well, but if we could get the price down a bit, I could probably do both.
• I also offered to pay a higher down payment up front, thinking that perhaps the additional cash flow would be helpful, especially given the current credit crunch. I already had the cash sitting around for the job, so it was no difference to me.

As it turned out, he didn't actually care about the cash piece and said don't worry about it (he's actually doing it this weekend and never asked for the quoted down payment). I had sold the "bundled deal" as a way for him to see if he could find some efficiencies and drop his price a bit. I also stroked his ego in communicating that I was still going with him even though he wasn't the cheapest - but in return, I needed him to drop the price a bit to show that he was meeting me half way.

The Result

In the end, he ended up dropping his price $160. It's not a ton of money, and I didn't pursue a multi-round negotiation since this wasn't a "competitive negotiation", but rather a "win-win" negotiation (if you view your opposing negotiating party as an adversary that you don't intend on doing business with in the future, like say, a new car negotiation, you go for every dime; in this case, we're going to work together again in the future, plus he still has to do the job and I'd like for him to be in a good mood when he does it). To me though, the $160 for what amounted to a single 5 minute phone call, was more than worth it. That's $160 into the kids' college fund or it pays for our first barbecue on the new patio!

Do you have similar contractor/other negotiations stories where you had to step outside your comfort zone a bit to generate some savings?

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Each week, I like to publish the past week's hottest ETFs to share some new trends and niche ETFs out there and give investors some new ideas. For this week, emerging markets were hot and an especially strong performer has been the Treasury 3X ETF Short play, of which the 2X I started a few months back and has been the easiest (at least most expected/predicted) double digit gain I've had this year.

PIN - Powershares India - Up 22% - With Indian exchanges rallying close to 20% in a single day following the election of a pro-business party, investors have been buying shares in jubilant fashion. While I don't recommend flat out shorting a trend like this, it's entirely plausible that with this mass one-day move, the sentiment has gotten ahead of the fundamentals and perhaps a more diversified approach is appropriate via a straight emerging markets ETF such as EEM.

EDC - Direxion 3X Emerging Markets - Up 18% - With the aforementioned India rally, other emerging markets have been hot all year as well. With the trend continuing, as emerging markets took it on the chin on the way down, conversely, during the recovery, they are rocketing back up at a much faster pace than US equities. ECD is up 10 times the S&P500 over the prior 3 month period at 146% vs. 14.7% for the S&P500. While leveraged upward moves sound great historically, beware the long term degradation of value that occurs with these daily resetting instruments, especially if the trend is not rapid and sustained as outlined in this 3X ETF Short/Long warning.

TMV - Direxion 3X Short 30 year Treasury - Up 16% - A few months back, this seemed like a sure thing; and it was - with investors actually taking a negative yield in shorter maturity notes and a below-inflation yield in longer duration Treasury instruments just to have a place to stash cash during the storm, it was evident that there had to be a selloff in Treasuries in the coming months. It wasn't a question of if, but rather, when and to what degree. The play is now unwinding and while investors may have missed the easy money, as long as the financial crisis continues to abate, I'd expect to see yields continue to increase, driving the Short Treasury play further into the green. (See full rationale and other ways to Short Treasuries).

RSX - Market Vectors Russia - Up 11% - Russia has also continued its ascent, up double digits for the week and 92% over the prior 3 month period. Viewed as on the verge of default several months back, with oil rebounding and the global economy recovering, markets have viewed Russia's near-collapse in equities as overdone and investors have been buying back in in force. The ruble has appreciated around 15% against the US dollar since January indicating the worst may be over from a devaluation standpoint. The peak trading value for RSX was close to 60 in 2008 so a double from here is at least plausible if the global economy gets back on its feet.

Disclosure: While the author does not hold any of the aforementioned ETFs specifically, there is a position in TBT, which is the 2X Short Treasury ETF. Additionally, Long Jan 40 USO Call, which is a bullish play on oil.

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A few weeks back, I had done an article on Advanta's high yield investment notes yielding 8.5%-11%. While double digit yields sound appealing, I had warned of their potential insolvency and since these investment notes are not FDIC insured, it turns into a very high risk proposition. If Advanta goes down, there's a high likelihood that retail investors holding these notes would lose their entire principal or a vast majority of them, depending on how bankruptcy proceedings play out.

Well, more recently I posted this article showing how Advanta took the unprecedented move of cutting off credit to their existing small business customers. I've never heard of a credit card company taking such drastic action to preserve capital.

Why am I revisiting this? Because today, I saw an article highlighting that they have now moved up the effective date of the freeze, which portends serious problems. This, coupled with the fact that I'm still seeing plenty of search traffic coming in on Advanta's high yield notes and the fact that they're still advertising these notes heavily makes for potential problems for prospective investors. Shares are under $1, not exactly a resounding endorsement for a recovery. Buyer beware!

What do I like for yield?

I still like Muni Bonds, here's a small stock that's raised dividends 24 times in a row!, and there are still some non-Financials on the high yield mega cap list that are worth checking out.


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In March, when equities started to rally substantially off their unprecedented lows, there were many prominent doomsayers espousing the view that the longs were a bunch of ill-informed schleps in it for a "Sucker's Rally". The most vocal of the esteemed economists is Nouriel Roubini who routinely tosses around the "Sucker's Rally" moniker and is known as Dr. Doom for having been right on the demise of markets early on.

Since he penned his March "Sucker's Rally" post (also opining on the fabled "dead cat bounce" which could have only been invented on Wall Street) and said Markets Could go MUCH Lower here both in the early part of March, the S&P500 has rallied 34% and well, if you were aggressive enough to go hard core developing markets with the 3X Return ETF EDC, you're sitting on a 213% return. At the base assumption though,

For 34% in 2 months, Call Me a Sucker!

While Dr. Doom is much more learned in the arts of finance than this simple blogger and student of markets, I can't help but remind readers that for every esteemed Nobel laureate/subject matter expert with one opinion, there will be another equally or more qualified voice with the exact opposite opinion (recall on other other end of the spectrum, Warren Buffet buying big time into the actual last sucker's rally? He was wrong/early as well).

The point is that you shouldn't be swayed by sensational sound bites and headlines from lionized economists, but rather, stick to your long term investment objective. If you're a twenty-something with a 401K account and you were trying to time your account in and out of the market, you may have very well missed the best 2 month move in equities you'll see in a lifetime. History has demonstrated that the majority of all upside in portfolio performance over a given time period is attributed to just a small fraction of very up trading days - and you may have missed them. For someone with a long time horizon that didn't need that cash for another 35 years, the best policy is probably to set it and forget it in the lowest fee passive index-type funds you can find in your plan.

Somebody was selling at the trough in early March. And I was buying!

How about you? Any "Suckers" out there? And what are your thoughts on this article?

Make sure to check out these other recent articles on this crazy market behavior:

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

The Financial Media Makes it up as they Go

Is This the Rebound? A Financials Volatility Play (posted on March 12, the bottom)

Everyday Finance Trading Update: Recovery Edition (sold short Treasuries [great play!] and I'm up over 1000% on the CEDC option)

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

March Madness: Bull Market Link Edition

Apple Volatility at Earnings Play - Just Right


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Taking a page from my standing "Hottest ETFs of the Week" segments, I wanted to highlight some small cap stocks that have moved in excess of 100% during the prior month. While I make no predictions as to whether they will continue to rally similarly in the coming months, it is likely that given such rapid moves, there will likely be high volatility in shares which may lend itself to various investment plays ranging from exploiting the earnings options volatility play to just taking a long or short position based on your assessment of fundamentals vs. valuation.

VNDA - Vanda Pharmaceutical - Up 1008% - Vanda ran up by over 800% 2 weeks back when they were granted surprise approval for their schizophrenia drug Fanapt. Given the anticipated likelihood of blockbuster status vs. the relatively paltry market capitalization of shares, they rallied in unprecedented fashion...then continued to follow through last week an additional 32%. The question is whether shares will continue to rally or come back to earth. The reason many investors believe shares will continue to rally is that given their small size, Vanda will likely have trouble commercializing the drug on its own, which may entail either a lucrative partnership or an outright takeover by a large pharma (who have been on shopping sprees given their anemic pipelines). Such a deal would likely bring an additional premium to shares, regardless of where they traded before the deal. So, for a quick bump of another say, 20-100%, investors are continuing to pile on for the ride.

COT - Cott Corporation - Up 213% - Cott has been on a roll due to a perceived turnaround following earnings that blew away street expectations.Cott is a multinational soft drink franchise that makes still and sparkling flavored waters, juice-based products, bottled water, energy drinks among other things. Shares had been well below $1 per share in the early part of 2009, but they have since rallied to $4.70 recently. Given that it appears as though Cott has emerged from the brink of bankruptcy, a return to prior levels would bring triple digit returns from here as well.

DTG - Dollar Thrift - Up 164% - Dollar Thrifty has been thriving under the premise that with summer around the corner, the car rental business will pick up again. With investors losing close to 50% of their retirement stash and people just feeling more "poor" than they did a year ago even if their income hasn't diminished, the thinking is that domestic vacations employing the use of US fleets are going to supplant more lavish overseas vacations that the US rental agencies don't get a slice of. This trend has been in place for a few months now, with DTG up over 300% year to date. The question is, "Are investors jumping in now too late to the party?".

LNET - Lodgenet - Up 183% - Lodgenet is an interesting outfit that provids interactive media and connectivity solutions to the hospitality industry in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. There isn't a lot of coverage or press on the outfit, but in reading through the latest Earnings Call Transcript, they appear to be benefiting from growth in their new businesses like HD services even though their overall revenue took a hit in the last quarter. Their healthcare portfolio grew over 200% as well, which brings lucrative margins. Up 585% YTD, this outfit may be worth looking into further as a long term trend on their services vs. the competition.


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If you haven't heard of the new search engine Wolfram Alpha yet, you should check it out. You're probably thinking, "Google's the best search engine there is, why would I try a different one?". Well, because they're different. While Google returns various links to blogs and websites that are often irrelevant, useless or spam, Alpha relies on data straight from government and public databases and utilizes a staff of a few hundred people to organize and coordinate replies to questions in the format you're looking for rather than linking you to the top ranked site that has a lock on a particular keyword.

Some Examples

A favorite of mine was the stock comparison. By doing the "IBM APPL" example, you get immediate calculations that I used to have to do myself manually in a spreadsheet in my MBA days. Having expected return, volatility, correlation coefficients, etc. at your fingertips in one shot was quite impressive.



If you try out "$75,000" per year, it returns a breakdown in dollars per hr, etc. as well as the equivalent in multiple foreign currencies. So, this would be quicker than me going to Google and finding a currency calculator, then entering the $75,000, then selecting the to/from currencies and retrieving an answer.



If you're helping your kid out with their science project and type in "Saturn" in Google, you'll end up on the home page of another unsuccessful franchise under General Motors. In Alpha, you get all the requisite measures and data on the planet Saturn.



Room for Improvement

In trying it out today, I found the load speed to be excruciatingly slow, even to get to the home page. I hope that improves or I can't bear it any more. Aside from that, it's a pretty neat alternative to Google, which is still far from perfect. I was also underwhelmed by a few scientific-type searches that didn't turn up anything useful. I would envision that if they get enough useful data in the system and enough momentum behind usage (and eventually find a way to monetize), the engine could be a decent alternative to traditional search engines that bring you results by content and inbound links.


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The following is a guest post by Think Debt Relief. If interested in guest posting at Everyday Finance, see these guidelines.

In 2008, more than one million Americans filed for bankruptcy protection from their creditors. In 2005, bankruptcies rose to more than 2 million, prior to changes in the bankruptcy code that made getting a fresh start a bit harder. Since that time, the number of bankruptcies has dropped, but analysts noted that the number of new bankruptcy filings has increased substantially in the past year.

One of the unintended consequences of the new bankruptcy laws has been that Americans are now carrying larger debts longer before seeking some kind of debt relief assistance. This assistance ranges from credit counseling to debt settlement to loan modification to personal bankruptcy, but one thing remains constant: Consumers are coming in with higher debt loads.

The new bankruptcy regulations impose a means test to determine whether the filer has the ability to repay his debts or not. Those who do not have the means to repay may be allowed to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which permits the discharge of certain debts after the filer has sold any nonexempt assets and used the proceeds from the liquidation of those assets to pay eligible creditors. Those who have the means to repay at least some of what they owe may file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection. Under this section of the bankruptcy code, filers reorganize their debts and work out a payment plan that remains in place for three to five years, after which any remaining debts may be discharged at the court’s discretion.

Consumers who can’t afford the monthly payments of a credit counseling debt management plan and who are considering bankruptcy may find another form of debt relief in debt settlement. In a debt settlement program, professional debt negotiators work with a consumer’s creditors to try to negotiate lower payoff amounts than what the consumer owes.

Although some people may contract the services of a professional debt settlement company, consumers may also attempt to negotiate debt settlements themselves, working directly with their creditors. Neither option, however, is a guarantee that a creditor will agree to settle. Unlike in a bankruptcy, in which a creditor is required to abide by the bankruptcy court’s decision on any payoff amount deemed appropriate, a creditor isn’t required to accept any debt settlement offer for less than what a consumer owes.

I read with interest this article outlining how a company and university have patented two human genes linked to breast and ovarian cancers. Now, the ACLU is suing Myriad Genetics on the grounds that it is unconstitutional and will inhibit innovation. I was also shocked to learn that about 20 percent of all human genes are patented, including genes associated with Alzheimer's, asthma and more. According to the article,

"Myriad's patents give it exclusive right to perform diagnostic tests on the genes, forcing other researchers to request permission from the company before they can take a look at BRCA1 and BRCA2, the ACLU said. The patents also give the company the rights to future mutations on the BRCA2 gene and the power to exclude others from providing genetics testing."

This is rather far reaching. I interpret this as an out and out monopoly on human genes whereby Myriad can charge whatever outrageous royalty fee they so choose, thereby inhibiting innovation toward those targets.

How do I see this playing out as more genes are patented?

Well, if the trend continues and the frenzy for the discovery and subsequent patenting of various genes continues, rather than having several researchers at universities and companies all working toward cures for various maladies in parallel with the hopes that their actual compound or assay will assist in diagnosing or treating diseases, you may have just the patent owner for each particular gene working on innovations, which in turn means 1 rifle round instead of a shotgun approach of hundreds of innovators competing for the prize. When competition and innovation is stifled, we end up with a lack of medical progress and it is evident that the human genome (although lately, many are saying the new frontier is the proteome) is where the next wave of medical advances will come from.

Here's what a professor of bioethics said in the article, (well put):

"It's like trying to patent the moon," he said. "You didn't do anything to create it, just discovered something that already existed. You can't patent things that are publicly available, that anyone can find. You have to create something, make something, do something with the thing."

What are your thoughts? Should companies be able to patent genes and other existing human anatomics without actually delivering a defined assay or new biologic/chemical entity to diagnose or treat an underlying malady?

If you enjoyed this article, also consider:

Biotech Seasonal Cycle Extending?
Top 10 Places to Work for New Grads in 2008 (biotech's hot!)
My Twitter Followers that Made 285% in 1 day Today (biotech trade)
Swine Flu Stocks - Some Perspective on these biotechs


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I saw this article today from CBSMarketwatch detailing a $60 Million settlement reached between Goldman Sachs and the Mass. Attorney General to account for Goldman's role in the securitization of subprime mortgage loans and found myself wondering...why?

I understand the anger on the street over the current economic malaise. You can't avoid reading about it, hearing about it, living it. People are angry that their home values have declined, their 401Ks have become 201Ks and now, people are losing their jobs in pretty large numbers. There's plenty of blame to go around, but to date, the only blame I really see being assigned is to the usual suspects - large, multinational, easily-vilified "rich" Wall Street firms. It's evident this process if more political than it is fair, ethical or practical.

I have yet to read about a single prosecution for falsification of loan documents by loan officers, mortgage outfit leadership or individual homeowners. In fact, the administration has decided to throw more money at the same cast of characters that blatantly lied about income, and knew this house of cards wasn't sustainable and would eventually crumble - while they collected never before seen bonuses and income based on insane loan volume.

Let's take a look at the settlement in a little more detail:

"Goldman will pay $50 million to Massachusetts homeowners who will be able to modify their mortgages to help them stay in their homes..."

• So, yes, Goldman was one of the players tinkering with "financial innovations" that helped facilitate the collaterilization, or re-packaging of loans which were in turn sold to suckers the world wide (if you can believe it, American retail investors almost had a crack at publicly traded CDOs and were saved by the bell).
• They essentially created a secondary market for these loans that eventually went sour and they did profit handsomely in the process.
  
• But what about the source? Goldman didn't cause people to default on their obligations, nor did they facilitate fraudulent transactions on the retail end.
  
• Wall Street certainly provided the incentive with an endless stream of income to mortgage originators, but where are they and the public in this settlement? Oh, they're on the receiving end! Yes, Goldman, for their role, will now be paying to keep people in their homes that took on mortgages they had no business being in to begin with.
  

It Gets Better...

"...For homeowners with loans held by Goldman entities, Goldman has agreed to reduce the principal of first mortgages by up to 25-35% and second mortgages by 50% or more..."

• Not only is Goldman eating a substantial amount of principal (it takes over a decade to put a 35% crack in the principal on an amortized 30 year loan), but the people who took on second mortgages get a special bonus! The speculators who had no income/assets or very little to speak of but bought a condo in Las Vegas or Miami to flip it...then got caught with their pants down...well, they get a half-off sale! Amazing.

"Goldman has also agreed to make a $10 million payment to the Commonwealth"

• Hmmm. I'll take a little legal extortion with that spanking. What's this extra $10 Million for, a little budget shortfall? I assume all the states (well, the speculative states on the coasts; middle America seems to have been a bit less greedy/stupid during this frenzy) will jump on the bandwagon and look for their piece to cover their budget shortfalls.
  
• Just like they spent like drunken sailors during the good years by completely squandering the Tobacco Settlements and blew other surpluses, now, they'll be using suits like this as the next revenue source until the next scapegoat comes around.
  
• Who knows, maybe Microsoft and bit tobacco will be up again for another shakedown or perhaps a new round of bait is brewing. Oh wait, Google's getting big - search ruined my state's budget! The damn iPhones are to blame for god knows what, but let's get Apple! You don't hear politicians chastising Americans for making stupid bets because that doesn't win votes. There's been more time spent investating peanut plants and steroids than how our political leadership greased the skids for this inevitable trainwreck.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm no cheerleader for the Wall Street machine (several firms, not GS specifically) that was so inept (or complicit) that CDO models assumed home prices would continue to rise at 6-8% per year indefinitely and that people with no verifiable income would actually make payments on homes that they had no business owning. Heck, there's an entire website dedicated to the hatred of Goldman here, but where's the outrage and legal action toward the actual source of the problem? Instead, they're getting a redistribution of wealth and incentive bonuses to concoct a do-over.


Disclosure: No holding in GS, MSFT. I am long Google with a credit spread for income as well. Long AAPL covered call position.


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Each week, I like to publish the past week's hottest ETFs to share some new trends and niche ETFs out there and give investors some new ideas. Markets have been extremely strong off the lows in March, leaving some prospective investors on the sidelines wondering if they missed the boat or if they should start investing today given the longer term returns markets historically deliver. This week, we saw a massive runup in Financials as investors breathed a sigh of relief following the Stress Test results that weren't as bad as anticipated, we saw continued strength in emerging markets and some more strength from particular metals ETFs that dominated this list in April as well.

FAS -Up 60% - Direxion Financial Bull 3X Shares - This ETF's a routine mention on the hot ETF weekly updates and represents a leveraged 3X return on shares of banking/financial companies. Basically, with the fear of a complete economic collapse and complete nationalization abating, shares are rallying with double digit returns weekly simply because of the abysmal levels they reached over the past year. If worried about being caught on the wrong side of this hyper-volatile trade, you could always try the hedged approach to FAS/FAZ with this hedged Financials play.

ERX - Up 27% - Direxion Energy Bull 3X - Up 13% on Friday alone, this 3X energy ETF is rallying in the face of a possible global recovery within site and US jobs numbers that came in better than expected. Paradoxically, oil demand in the US, the world's leading consumer, is at 10-year lows, yet oil continues to rally. Evidently, this is a trade on a strong bounce back from the recent shock as opposed to near term fundamental support.


AGQ - Up 25% - 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 24% - Barclays iPath Tin - This one's actually an ETN which carries ETN-specific risks to consider that ETFs don't, but as far as I've seen, it's the only pure play on Tin, which rallied significantly last week - again.

UNG - Up 23% - US Natural Gas Fund - With Natural Gas prices in the $12/1000 cubic foot range a year ago and today's prices at less than a third of that, as the economy shows any glimmer of hope, expect to see these prices continue to rally. However, don't assume that there's a perfect correlation between natural gas and oil, because there isn't. While UNG rallied 23% last week, oil shares rose less than 10%. And YTD, oil's flat while UNG is still down over 25%.



Disclosure: I've been long USO (1x oil) for some time now; no other holdings in the aforementioned ETFs.


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

Discover has a new card called the Current Card, which is meant to be a pre-paid debit card for teens. Types of cards like this provide some peace of mind for parents, especially with kids far away at college who are spending money on god knows what. While I dealt with all cash in college, I knew other kids who had debit cards, but at that time, there wasn't the degree of oversight, tracking and parental controls that exist with this card. While it introduces some benefits for parents, it could come at the expense of frustration or a perception of a lack of trust from your kid. Here are some of the benefits as outlined by Current by Discover:

Current by Discover - Teen Prepaid Debit Card Debit Card for Teens with built-in parental controls

• Set daily, weekly, and monthly spending limits
  
• Restrict teen card use in unwanted shopping categories (e.g. liquor stores, tobacco stores, hotels, etc.)
  
• Free Direct Deposit for parents & teens
  
• Free deposits from any credit card or bank account
  
• $0 fraud liability guarantee
  
• Withdraw cash at ATMs
  
• Get exclusive discounts at teen's favorite merchants
  
• Free e-mail and text message activity alerts
  
• No minimum balances, loading fees, or credit check

Is it OK to Spy on your Kids?

Personally, I feel that if you're paying the kid's way, they're kind of at the mercy of your discretion and oversight. If they don't like it, they could always try and do it on their own, and they'd be back tomorrow for the deal you're offering. However, since honesty's the best policy and even kids on your bill should have the luxury of some level of privacy, I'd recommend telling your child just what it is you can check and what you will check. Even if you don't intend on checking on them and never do, the notification will likely have its intended effect.

This is no different than telling our kids when they grow up that while they may have a cell phone or a computer in the kitchen, it's at our discretion to check calls, texts, browser history, etc. This a) puts them on alert that they shouldn't be sexting or doing whatever ridiculous behavior will be "in" at the time while b) engendering trust and respect that we at least had the discretion to notify them that we may/would be checking these things as opposed to just sneaking and spying like a lot of parents do (which makes it all the more difficult to confront a tough situation when your child will feel betrayed that you were reading a diary, spying on them, etc).

Here's a link for the Current by Discover - the perfect card for Teens!


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The June 2009 Consumer Reportshad a section on savings tips from staff and readers. While some of them were of questionable utility, I found several to be innovative and insightful, or in many cases, something I've already tried and reported on at Everyday Finance, saving thousands per year. Here were a few of my favorites.

1. Buy No-Iron shirts instead of taking them to the dry cleaner. I haven't really focused on this, but if the shirts look acceptable, I'd end up saving a fair amount. Neither my wife or myself enjoy ironing, so we probably drop several hundred per year on this service.
2. Pay attention to the unit price in the supermarket. I always do this, but judging by observation, many people (yes, you too wife), don't. You almost always save by buying larger (although oddly, sometimes not - seemingly by trickery - need to read those labels), but if you're looking at two different brands that are essentially equivalent in terms of quality, but they're different sizes, this is the only way to know which one offers the best value. Unless you're the human calculator!
   
3. Be your own landscaper. I had detailed the 10-year savings of mowing your own lawn in detail here, in my money-savings tips series.
4. Call your internet, phone and cable company to get a reduced rate. Check out how I'm saving $250 per year with Comcast for Life!
5. One reader puts every $5 bill they get as change in drawer. I never heard of that one, but it sounds interesting. Since you don't tend to end up with a ton of $5 bills, it won't necessarily send you to the MAC more often, but will tend to add up to several hundred dollars per year for a rainy day fund.
6. Bring Coffee to work in a thermos. I had this epiphany last year and estimated my annual coffee savings here. Totally easy and I'm ashamed I didn't start doing it sooner.
7. Avoid Bottled Water - another one I started last year and estimated some great savings. I must have been on to something!
8. Start using white vinegar and baking soda as a cleaner instead of expensive toilet and counter cleaners. Hey, if it works, much cheaper!
   

Ideas (no offense) that were really useless in my opinion:

1. "Skip going to a concert and watch a DVD of the concert instead." Apparently, this was written by someone who's never attended a live show. It defeats the whole purpose. It's like saying the same of taking your kid to a baseball game or just watching your kid's holiday concert on your wife's filmed home video instead of going.
2. "Cut your fabric softener sheets in half". This is one of those "extreme frugality hacks" as I like to call them. So, the whole point of the fabric softener is to wear clothes that don't feel like cardboard. Now, they'll just feel like partially weathered cardboard. And how much can you really save a year doing this? 10 bucks?
3. Flatten the toiler paper roll, it "doesn't spin around as much". Look, I'm a sheet counter. Whether it's flat or round, when I need it, I count out...well, OK, too much information. I don't see how this saves toiler paper though. My 2 year old spins the toiler paper roll. I'm a bit past that stage.
4. Cut out wine and beer. Well, we don't consume much of it here anyway, but these "cut out this, cut out that" ideas are usually useless. If you can "replace" something or find a cheaper way to do something, great. But it's like don't eat any more. Don't brush your teeth, you'll save money on toothpaste. If you're entertaining or have a beer now and then, that's a routine luxury that you probably aren't inclined to just cut out solely for financial reasons.
   

Don't Miss:

Net Present Value: Why you should use it in Everyday Life

Buying a New Car - Strategies and Findings

Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone to Save Money Daily

By the way, if you don't subscribe to Consumer Reports, you should consider it; between the reviews and the tips, the series probably returns 10x on the nominal investment each year for a subscription.

Any other simple tips you want to add here?

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This one goes out to the media for scaring the crap out of everyone for a week, then doing these "holier than thou" pieces on, ironically, how the media overhyped the swine flu. Entire school districts of thousands of students shut down; Egypt is killing pigs (Great Quote: "Killing (pigs) is not a solution, otherwise, we should kill the people, because the virus spreads through them," ) and the media - Wow, full circle so quickly! Will this go down as the great swine flu swindle? Yes, of course I did a few articles on swine flu investments, but did rightly point out that the media will hype the heck out of this, the swine flu stocks (there are actually swine flu indices now!)will fall back to earth and that anyone making predictions about what will happen with it has no scientific credibility.

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And How Are Things at Darwin's Finance?

In a nutshell, great. While traffic's steady and I've continued to enjoy the reader interactions and blogger collaborations at Everyday Finance, Darwin's Finance is growing by leaps and bounds since its launch (below-several thousand per month in growth to 11,000 views in April!). After jumping right to a page rank 3 during the first Google page rank update and garnering decent search traffic for my articles, my traffic there's growing so quickly that Darwin's Finance may very well surpass this blog in traffic within the next couple months. I'm also well over 100 RSS/email subscribers there which is ahead of schedule.




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 the top posts from April:

Why were the Risk-Averse so Heavily Invested in Stocks?

6 Prudent Uses for your Tax Refund This Year

High Yield Bond ETF - 12% Yield + Share Gains Looking Attractive

24 Dividend Increases in a Row from a Company You've Never Heard of

4.2% Mortgage Rates on the Horizon Says Study

Advanta High Yield Notes: 8.5% - 11% Yield Worth the Risk?

Colombia ETF - A Return to Supercharged Frontier Market Returns?

Apple Volatility at Earnings Play - Just Right

Refi Rates Low, but Banks Aren't Lending?

Swine Flu Investment Ideas

Best CD Yields in April 2009

What I Learned at the Park - An Easy $400 per Hour!

A Lesson in Volatility prior to Earnings Releases: Google Options

Is Shop To Earn a Scam or Legit Business Opportunity?

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Each week, I like to publish the past week's hottest ETFs to share some new trends and niche ETFs out there and give investors some new ideas. This week, we saw strength in emerging markets and that Short Treasuries play, which I've loved since the beginning of the year. Of course, nobody can ignore the Swine Flu Stocks manic volatility that will surely continue in the coming weeks (and who knows, perhaps a Swine Flu ETF is on the horizon?) but buyers beware - don't let the hype get ahead of the fundamentals in your trading decisions.

BVT - Up 16% - ELEMENTS BG Total Market ETN (BVT) - While this ETN turned in an impressive return last week, I get concerned about these Elements ETNs, especially following the bizarre behavior of the Gold Elements ETN that returned over 400% in a month when the real gold move was 16%. I've seen multiple products now diverge from reality and many retail investors that chase the seemingly high return get left holding the bag. Only 1800 shares changed hands Friday. I list it here in case you're considering buying it based solely on last week's return. Caveat Emptor.

KOL - Up 13% - Market Vectors Coal ETF - With a 7% move on Friday, this ETF continued its tear for the prior 3 months, up over 40% vs. a single digit return for the S&P500. With glimmers of a US recovery in hand and coal being the practical source of energy in the US for the foreseeable future, regardless of political promises of "green energy, green jobs" and other worthless promises unsupported by market forces, the underlying companies have been rallying.

DAG - Up 12% - PowerShares DB Agriculture Dble Long ETN - This Ag ETN was up over 8% on Friday alone and has roughly tracked the market going back the past several weeks, so last week was a breakout. It tracks an index which is meant to contain roughly equal percentages of corn, wheat, soybean, and sugar futures contracts. Note - supposed to be 2X though if you didn't catch it in the name.

TMV - Up 11% - Direxion Daily 30-Year Treasury Bear 3x Shares - This 3x leveraged ETF seeks to actually exploit improving market conditions that result from a flight FROM safety by driving up the yield (or price lower) on 30 year Treasuries. Recall that in 2008, we were seeing record lows for yields on Treasuries and in some cases, investors were accepting a negative yield on short dated securities just to have somewhere to stash their funds during the storm. At that time, my best recommendation (and personal move) was to short Treasuries with TBT, a 2X ETF. Now, the 3X is available via TMV. Make sure you understand that these are recommended for short term trades and not the best long term investments since it's based on daily volatility and you lose a fair amount of value over time due to fees and volatility daily.


Disclosure: Long TBT (2X short treasuries)

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