After a 10-year bull run, gold is now falling steeply. At the time of this writing, gold has fallen back to August 2011 levels. Gold ETFs (exchanged traded funds) are seeing an exit of investors. What are some of the reasons for this fall? How can you protect yourself from this drop?

Source: Kitco charts

In each of the past 6 months, the monthly returns for gold has either been negative or has stayed close to zero.

Source: Zingfin: Gold Profile Analysis

Here are some of the primary drivers of this trend:

1. Pause in Quantitative Easing: Gold is generally used as an hedge/protection against inflation. This is the primary reason for gold's rise in the 2003-07 period (when commodity prices as well as real estate markets pushed up the inflation in the supply side) as well as in the 2009-11 period (when unprecendented amount of new money was created).

The financial sector appears to have turned over a new leaf as the country takes more conservative measures in response to the 2008 financial crisis. Consequently, consumer finance exchange traded funds are looking much healthier.

"We have a positive view on the consumer finance sub-sector," writes Sonia Parechanian, S&P Capital IQ Equity Analyst, in a research note. "We have seen the consumer deleverage and household savings rates rise, and consumers appear to be prudently cautious in taking on new debt. Also helpful, the housing market appears to be rebounding."

A number of economic indicators also points to a stronger financial sector. For instance, the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index is up to 69.6 in February from 58.4 in January. According to the Conference Board, those anticipating jobs in the months ahead rose to 16.7% in February from 14.4% in January. Consumer credit outstanding increased to 7.0% in January from

It's been an ugly few days for the Materials sector. With rumors of a commodity hedge fund running into trouble, commodities have been under intense selling pressure. Along with the slide in actual commodities, commodity-related stocks have also been plunging.

The chart below shows the relative strength of the large-, mid-, and small-cap Materials sectors vs. each of their respective indices (S&P 500, S&P 400 Midcap, and S&P 600 Smallcap). When the line is rising, the sector is outperforming its overall index and vice versa when the line is falling. Following the declines in the sector this week, both the large- and mid-cap Materials sectors are underperforming their respective indices over the last

" Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step. " -- Lao Tzu

Wall Street has been traveling in a tight line this past week, a classic tightrope walk between greed and fear. Investors seem unwilling to take profits off the table resulting from the year's uptrend, not wishing to miss any of the current Bull Run, but also appearing reluctant to allocate more cash towards equities, at least for the moment.

So is what we are seeing now merely investors acclimating themselves to the thin air of the lofty altitude in which both the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and S&P 500 Index (SPX) find themselves floating? Or is it the moment that precedes a collective corrective nosedive? As per usual, arguments can be

The Financials sector ranks tenth out of the ten sectors as detailed in my Sector Rankings for ETFs and Mutual Funds report. It gets my Very Dangerous rating, which is based on aggregation of ratings of 46 ETFs and 227 mutual funds in the Financials sector as of January 30, 2013. Prior reports on the best & worst ETFs and mutual funds in every sector and style are here.

Figures 1 and 2 show the five best and worst-rated ETFs and mutual funds in the sector. Not all Financials sector ETFs and mutual funds are created the same. The number of holdings varies widely (from 23 to 519), which creates drastically different investment implications and ratings. The best ETFs and mutual funds allocate more value to Attractive-or-better-rated stocks than the worst ETFs and mutual funds, which allocate too much value to Neutral-or-worse-rated stocks.

To identify the best

The Financials sector ranks last out of the ten sectors as detailed in my sector rankings for ETFs and mutual funds. It is the only sector to get my Very Dangerous rating, which is based on aggregation of ratings of 46 ETFs and 232 mutual funds in the Financials sector as of October 11, 2012. Prior reports on the best and worst ETFs and mutual funds in every sector and style are here.

Figures 1 and 2 show the five best and worst-rated ETFs and mutual funds in the sector. Not all Financials sector ETFs and mutual funds are created the same. The number of holdings varies widely (from 23 to 504), which creates drastically different investment implications and ratings. The best ETFs and mutual funds allocate more value to Attractive-or-better-rated stocks than the worst ETFs and mutual funds, which allocate too much value to Neutral-or-worse-rated stocks.

We get JPMorgan (JPM) and Wells Fargo (WFC) kicking off the financial results for the banking sector tomorrow, Friday, 10/12/12. We've given our earnings preview for both stocks earlier this week here on Seeking Alpha, and expect good results from both entities at least on an operating basis. (There is still some noise around JPM regarding the London Whale fiasco, but most of the earnings hit was taken in the June quarter, and thus the Q3 '12 numbers are expected to be cleaner for the capital markets bank.)

From watching the Thomson Reuters data, we think financial stocks will start to see better numbers and possibly even upward earnings revisions starting with Q3 '12 reports and into Q4 '12.

We have been tracking financial sector (as well as all S&P 500 sectors) earnings estimates on our blog since last May, and both financial estimates and their revisions are starting to

Forex brokers have been going under nearly on a monthly basis, as any forex trader or client can attest for the last few years. The most recent, PFGBest, was also a futures commissions merchant with over 70,000 clients and a reported $500 million in customer funds.

The Differences Between PFG and MF Global

It is rumored that many MF Global customers will receive anywhere from 90%-98% of their funds from the current custodian. While this figure may vary depending on individual circumstances, we have not heard that customers may lose more than 15% of their deposit max. While this is an unfortunate situation, and also considering funds will be locked up while the procedure continues, it is not a 100% loss.

It is still too early to tell how PFG will play out, but based on available information, PFG only had $5 million on deposit with obligations well over

By The ETF Professor, Benzinga Staff Writer

This summer, London will become the first city ever to have hosted three Olympic Games. While traders may be watching the action, they may be more interested in how they can trade around the event.

More than being a sporting spectacle of epic proportions, the Olympics are a money-maker. A rather large one at that and some of the biggest names in business, both foreign and domestic, shell out millions of dollars to have their names and products intimately tied to this global sporting event.

Purists may think it is sad that the Olympics are now nearly as corporate as NASCAR, but that does create some opportunities for ETF investors. Consider the following funds as legitimate plays on the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR (XLP) Not only is the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR an ideal ETF with which

After a long wait, this week will kick off earnings season, as investors around the world will be looking to see how the corporate sector has fared over the last three months. Though stock markets have been able to rally for the first quarter of 2012, some are worried that individual companies have not followed suit. Bad news came on Friday, as the number of jobs added was less than expected, despite bringing unemployment down to 8.2%. Markets will be looking to shake off one of the worst weeks in recent memory, and there will be a slew of economic data and earnings releases to keep traders busy. Below, we outline three funds to keep a close eye on as the coming week unfolds.

SPDR S&P China ETF (GXC)

Why GXC Will Be In Focus: This ETF focuses its assets on Chinese equities, with top holdings coming from

Stock ETFs were deep in the red Wednesday after the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting threw cold water on speculation the central bank is gearing up to unleash another wave of quantitative easing.

Equity ETFs posted stellar results for the first quarter of 2012, supported by the favorable performance of the S&P 500 Index. The index had a positive total return of 12.6%, with about 300 ETFs outperforming the S&P in the first three months of the year.

"The positive returns from equity ETFs were broad based. Among equity ETFs classified as having more of a domestic stock emphasis, 334 were in positive territory, along with 273 equity ETFs that had more of a global or international emphasis," Tom Graves, CFA of S&P Capital IQ Equity Research, wrote in a recent MarketScope article.

"Among the 52 ETFs with a total return of 20%, S&P Capital IQ's MarketScope Advisor

By JT

Let’s breakdown the best and worst performing exchange-traded funds in March 2012, while highlighting the best three leveraged and unleveraged funds.

Top Leveraged ETFs in March 2012

1. VelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Short Term ETN (XIV) 36.94% – This inverse fund tracking double the daily change in the short-term VIX index ran away from the pack in March. Playing the VIX – the volatility index – is a popular bet this year as the markets trudge higher. However, the VIX continues to move lower, mostly due to on-again off-again positions from retail investors in one of the most illiquid futures contracts. ETFs seeking to provide accurate tracking to investors are now the largest players in the VIX future market.
2. Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS) 19.3% – This triple-leveraged fund tracking the Russell 100 Financial Services Index finds no reason to take a breather. Healthy bank balance

Bank of America (BAC) shares are threatening to break above $10 and the stock has helped lead financial sector ETFs sharply higher in March.

Financial ETFs have seen about $1.5 billion in inflows over the last week with the Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF) gaining about $1.2 billion of those assets. ETFs lacking Bank of America shares have underperformed and analysts warn that they may do so going forward, reports Shanthi Bharatwag for The Street.

Shares of Bank of America have almost doubled since the start of 2012, lately hovering around $10. Since the beginning of March the stock has gained about 25%, leading the latest large cap bank rally.

As KBW analyst Fred Cannon wrote in a note Tuesday, large-cap banks have outperformed the sector, with the KBW Bank Index gaining 26% year to date compared to the S&P Banks Select Industry Index, up 22.3%, with both topping

Over the past month, investors are rotating into the deep value ETFs from 2011. Many poor performing ETFs in 2011 are now seeing double-digit price gains due to this changing trend. Defining deep value with a price to book less than 1 identifies the current ETFs with a combined deep value of stocks. The two most sought after sectors by investors has been financials and real estate. Among this universe of ETFs, the banking and financial ETFs are showing the greatest price gains through the previous month.

The SPDR S&P BANK ETF KBE employs a replication strategy in seeking to track the performance of the S&P Banks Select Industry Index. It has a price to book ratio of 0.79 with a dividend yield of 1.73%. Among its top ten holdings are Suntrust Banks STI and BB&T BBT, both of which are being highly touted by stock pickers for 2012. KBE

Introduction

U.S. bank purchases, packaging and trading of mortgages and their derivatives in late-2008 resulted in the U.S. banking collapse and the global recession. European bank purchases and packaging of Greek and other sovereign debt is close to causing another global meltdown. That leads to the question posed by the title: what should we do about it. In the following article, I consider several viewpoints on what should be done.

The Bhid é and Lounsbury Suggestions

In a NYT op-ed piece, Prof. Amar Bhidé recommends:

• Governments should fully guarantee all bank deposits;
• Governments should impose much tighter restrictions on risk-taking by banks, and finally
• Banks should be forced to shed activities like derivatives trading that regulators cannot easily examine.

John Lounsbury, Managing Editor and Co-founder of Global Economic Intersection has suggested:

“... the depository function of banks should be regulated as are public utilities. That public utility