It was September 1999 — an exciting time for up-and-coming technology companies like IMS Health (NYSE: RX). Spun-off by Nielsen Media the year before, the healthcare information specialist was standing on its own for the first time — and the future was bright. IMS was the industry’s go-to source for… Read More

A good deal of political turmoil has surrounded the exchange-traded fund (ETF) world in recent months. The powers-that-be have been tightening the regulatory noose around certain commodities and leveraged funds. This has created headaches for fund issuers and millions of individual investors that have… Read More

Gold and platinum usually move in tandem, with platinum typically valued about twice as much as gold. Sometimes this relationship gets off kilter for a short while, but it usually corrects itself quickly. Gold and platinum prices have been disconnected since the end of 2008. Read More

China has had an impressive run. Its GDP has grown at double-digit rates while holders of Chinese stocks have earned triple-digit returns. While everyone else is talking about China, savvy investors should be asking where the next big growth story is. The investment company… Read More

When it comes to mutual funds, you could be looking for love in all the wrong places according to the renowned bond fund manager, Bill Gross. In his August 2009 Investment Outlook, Gross compared his own industry to Madame Rue, the gold-toothed gypsy in… Read More

In a bid to protect investors from an often misunderstood financial instrument, UBS, Edward Jones and Ameriprise Financial banned clients from purchasing leveraged ETFs this week. Company Available Broker Sales Merrill… Read More

The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued new rules about short selling, a strategy investors employ when they think a security’s price is going to fall. The two new rules don’t restrict short selling and won’t affect individuals or “short” or “ultrashort” exchange traded funds, at least not yet. The SEC plans an industry roundtable in September to discuss other proposals that could limit the practice, which has come under scrutiny after criticism that it drives down stock prices. Short and ultrashort (read: “leveraged”) exchange-traded funds allow… Read More

The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued new rules about short selling, a strategy investors employ when they think a security’s price is going to fall. The two new rules don’t restrict short selling and won’t affect individuals or “short” or “ultrashort” exchange traded funds, at least not yet. The SEC plans an industry roundtable in September to discuss other proposals that could limit the practice, which has come under scrutiny after criticism that it drives down stock prices. Short and ultrashort (read: “leveraged”) exchange-traded funds allow an investor to bet on a price drop. The funds are popular because they can be held in a typical brokerage account rather than transacted through a margin account, the vehicle through which short sales typically take place. One new rule calls for more reporting of short sales to increase the amount of information available to the public. Wall Street’s self-regulatory agencies will publish daily short-sale transaction reports that detail the total number of a company’s shares were shorted. After a month, the data would be… Read More

ProShares, a leader in “short” and “ultrashort” shares that profit when baskets of stocks fall in price, has released a new fund with a hybrid strategy of buying certain companies and short-selling others. The fund is the ProShares Credit Suisse 130/30 and trades… Read More

We first covered the Market Vectors Africa (NYSE: AFK) ETF  back in our August 2008 issue of StreetAuthority Market Advisor. Africa is a mix of developing and frontier economies. On one end of the spectrum you have South Africa, which boasts of a stable… Read More

     Just a few years ago, investors interested in profiting from a downturn in a specific corner of the market had to borrow shares from their broker, short individual companies — and then hope they didn’t pick a stock that went against the… Read More