It seems that nearly every pundit out there is telling tales of woe and despair over the crumbling dollar against the globe's currencies. Ok, the headlines are proclaiming that the dollar has been plunging - but let's look at the details behind the headlines.

I featured a custom portfolio at the beginning of July, titled 'Scott's Alternative'. Below is the update for September if you were to base buy/sell decisions on the 200 day moving average at the end of August. The portfolio is updated once per month. For some additional analysis on projections for Gold prices, which directly impact a holding GDX, there is an excellent video here. The portfolio is below:

I featured a custom portfolio at the beginning of July. Below is the update for August if you were to base buy/sell decisions on the 200 day moving average at the end of July:

Disclosures: None.

I've written on several occasions beginning here regarding the merits of market timing systems and I have also suggested a few portfolios. I've decided to start updating ETF portfolios on a monthly basis on the first of the month . I may add portfolios with time, but we will start with three portfolios: A starter 5 position portfolio inspired in part by Mebane Faber, Paul Merriman's ETF portfolio, and a custom portfolio which includes some alternative assets.

I will be posting the 200 and 120 day moving averages, which approximately represent a 10 and 6 month average. The ETFs trading above the 200 day moving average will be highlighted in bold (two of the ETFs in my custom portfolio have not been trading for 200 days). For background on the rational behind using a moving average system, please read my previous work.

The company offers a more nuanced assessment of the BRIC countries on its Q408 conference call: (XRX)

Chevron (CVX), Apple (AAPL), Cisco (CSCO), Morgan Stanley (MS), Citigroup (C)

Last week, I established a "toehold" position in the Western Asset Emerging Market Debt Fund (ESD). It is a closed end fund that mainly invests in high yielding dollar-denominated emerging market debt securities (e.g. including many Brady Bonds). Here are some of the reasons I like it:

1) Its sells at a discount to NAV of 14% and its management fee is only 0.95% a year.

There are several reasons why I believe in doing this. While I think the dollar is generally headed lower, slowly over time there will be periods where it is strong (bonds from other countries is one way to benefit from a weak dollar). The strategy here needs to be one of looking at the long term. Also, the blending of assets from different countries tends to reduce volatility. This especially makes sense when you consider that the middle of the US curve is very low by historical standards. I think it makes sense to expect that the curve will normalize at some point, and when it does I think intermediate and further out maturities will be higher in yield and shorter maturities will be a touch lower.

I hold small amount of an emerging market bond fund (TEI) as a nice diversifying aspect of my portfolio. There's no reason not to own a small portion of emerging market debt right now. But as a trade I prefer to buy emerging markets during panics not when everything seems as rosey and perfect as it does right now. Yield spreads are at historic lows, emerging market economies like Russia and Brazil are booming do to the recent commodity price highs.

I do not like emerging market debt as an asset class right now. However, if one needs to add emerging market debt fund for a short term trade, there's no reason not to take WITY's recommendation.

Where is the Yield? submits: Legg Mason just announced that they were renaming the Salomon Brothers Emerging Markets Debt Fund (ESD). The new name will be "Western Asset Emerging Markets Debt Fund," and so this closed-end fund, once a part of the Citigroup family, will shed the name that connected it to its previous owner.

The fund itself looks like good value here. The portfolio includes a better-than-average quality mix of emerging market debt, out of which the governments of Brazil,Russia and Mexico each take up roughly one fifth of assets. According to the most recent S&P report effective average duration is just over 3 years and credit quality averages BB+, with over 52% of assets rated investment grade. Management fees amount to a reasonable 1%, and the current yield on share price is 6.87%. The fund achieves this figure without leverage.

Foreign Markets Extend Decline As Rate Fears Curb Risk Appetite

On interest rates, we have clearly been wrong, believing that in a finance-based economy the Fed would stop its rate-ratchet around 3.5% - 3.75%. Hereto, despite the pickle-pundits’ cries that the “Fed is done,�? it appears to us as if the Fed is going to continue raising rates until there is an “accident�? consistent with its historic modus operandi. While such action should be bullish for the dollar, we continue to expect the dollar to lose its tailwinds (foreign earnings repatriation, Homeland Investment Act, Europe raising rates, etc.) this year. And, last week China fired another “shot across the dollar’s bow�? when it intimated that it was going to diversify more of its reserves out of U.S. dollars. Maybe that is one of the reasons our anti-dollar investment in 6.8%-yielding Aberdeen Asia-Pacific Income Fund (FAX/$6.14) has rallied 5.9% since December 30, 2005, yet still trades at a 5.2% discount to its net asset value.

Any ETFs or Closed-End Funds that we haven't covered that you think we should? Leave a comment below.