Martin Weiss' team of international experts - Mike Larson in North America, Claus Vogt in Europe, Tony Sagami on Asia, Rudy Martin on South America - and Ron Rowland, one of the nation's foremost experts on international exchange-traded funds (ETFs) met recently to discuss and determine what they think is coming next. They came up with eight new forecasts for 2010 — some very negative, some very positive - and put forth specific, actionable recommendations based on their conclusions. Words: 1969

About 54% of GDXJ’s holdings are considered “small-cap” using the metric of a market cap of $200 million to $1 billion. The ETF balances this with 44% in mid-cap names (stocks with market caps of $1 billion to $5 billion). In addition, GDXJ’s country exposure should give investors some comfort. Nearly two-thirds of the assets are in Canadian companies. Australia and the U.S. also have double-digit allocations. Words: 533

Investors are looking for a safe place to put their money - an asset class they can "touch" and possibly trade even when no organized marketplace exists. That of course is the worst-case scenario and I do not believe it will get that far but the possibility is there and gold seems to achieve peace of mind for investors at the moment. As such, for me, GLD would be the only stock or ETF I would buy if I could own just one. Words: 843

There's the greatest irony! Gold bugs panicking over GLD's connection to physical gold instead have flocked to an ETF that in no way, shape or form actually tracks the price of gold. Investors in PHYS are paying serious cash to avoid a better-constructed ETF, simply out of paranoia and fear. Words: 689

Crude oil, natural gas, gasoline — our civilization can't live without them. So it's no surprise that energy exchange traded funds (ETFs) are also big business. Today I'm going to give you a brief overview of the ETFs in this sector. As you'll see, energy is a surprisingly diverse industry. Words: 870

I had previously expressed personal interest in buying into this fund – as a relatively “safe” and diversified investment (within this sector). However, should the fund managers choose to invest heavily into derivative investments, the actual holdings of mining equities could be limited, and thus not offer an amount of diversification to justify experienced investors into putting money in this fund – and certainly the “safety” I had hoped for is also not present. Words: 868

As the U.S. dollar depreciates because of increased government spending, investors should consider turning to exchange traded funds (ETFs) to defend their wealth. Words: 278