Eric Peterson

Indonesia: A Must-Own Emerging Market

I've been investing in IF (Indonesia Fund, a closed end fund) for serveral years. It had a huge drop last year, but has been doing well this year, although not up to the levels it was at last year. It has the advantage that it's trading at about a 10% discount to net asset value. It has the disadvantage that trading volume is fairly light.

Not All Eastern European Economies Are the Same

And I might add: if you are a contrarian investor, then the countries with the worst sentiment might be the best investments.

Not All Eastern European Economies Are the Same

I'm not sure that sentiment is a very good indicator of how an economy is actually doing. I'm an American living in Slovakia, and Slovaks are notoriously pessimistic about their country for some reason.

3x ETFs Are Wealth Destroyers

On Apr 20 01:11 PM BlackFox wrote:
> Looks like the best thing to do long term is to short these ETFs.
> No way you will end up losing your money.

Shorting an equal dollar amount of FAS and FAZ and holding for several weeks or months is an interesting idea, but that will make money in a choppy market that goes nowhere.

In a strongly trending market you lose big with that strategy. The loss on one position will be much greater than the profit on the other position. The price of one fund can only go down to zero (resulting in a 100% profit on a short position) but the price of the other fund would much more than double, so you lose.

Invest in BIC, Not BRIC

Seth: I don't understand your comment about ETF's. "Investing" is not day-trading. So it doesn't matter if the ETF's trade during hours that the Indian and Chinese markets are closed. If India and China rally 10% in a month, I guarantee you the ETF's will also rally. It's irrelevant that they trade at different hours.

Why the EU Must Let Eastern European Nations in Now

"Why the EU Must Let Eastern European Nations in Now"

The title is a little misleading. Many Eastern European nations are already in the EU: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria. Some countries are certainly not ready to be in the EU: Serbia, Ukraine, Moldova. Maybe the title should have been "Baltic Nations" instead of Eastern European Nations.

Don't Miss the Coming Gold Bull

Everybody and their grandmother is shouting about how gold is going to double or triple. Do markets usually do what everyone expects?

I'm short gold for the short term (one or two months) until I see a few people saying that gold will not double.

Gold Prices Could Double...or More than Double

As for the title "Gold Prices Could Double...or More than Double" ... yes, or gold might not even keep up with inflation ... as it has not done over the past decades. You could buy more bread or milk with an ounce of gold 30 years ago than you can now.

Dow Will Equal Gold in 2009

Now it takes 15 barrels of oil to buy one ounce of gold. Earlier this year it took only 7 barrels. Gold is expensive. Everybody is saying gold will go through the roof during a financial crises. So why hasn't it already? It's gone down more then $200 an ounce so far.

ProShares Short Emerging Markets ETF: Demand Continues to Grow

Interesting that this article appears on a day that EEV lost 37%. Maybe a record one-day loss for EEV?

Why I'm Committed to the UltraShort Financials ETF

Ames Tiedeman wrote: "SKF is a now a buy or near a buy. The financial mess is not over." The question is not whether the financial mess is over yet. The question is, will it be worse than people expect it to be. People already expect it to be pretty bad. The expectations are already in the stock prices.

Why I'm Committed to the UltraShort Financials ETF

The article was posted the morning after SKF made its all-time high above 211. Now it's trading 3 days later at 131. Have to have a strong stomach to ride it down $80 a share. Next time I might use this author's article as a contrarian signal :)

Why I'm Committed to the UltraShort Financials ETF

"Disclosure: Long SKF, SDS, DBO, GLD, GOLDX, SZK and DAG."

Well then ... I guess this was one of the worst days of your life in the market.

International ETF Update: Israel, Russia, Turkey

RNE is a closed-end fund, not an ETF, but yes, it should be mentioned along with Templeton Russia Fund (TRF), another closed-end fund. RNE and TRF are more Russia-based than CEE, the only closed-end fund mentioned in the article.

CEE has a lot more than 27.7% in Russia. Its largest holding, Gazprom EDR, trades in the UK so it's not listed as Russia, but clearly it's Russia. Some other CEE unclassified holdings are Russia holdings. CEE is more like 50% Russia.

Exxon Mobil: The Root of all Evil?

I'm an American living in Europe. I have no sympathy for people complaining about $3.50 gas. I pay almost $8 a gallon here. When an SUV goes by, people turn and stare... it's not very common. The US government should add $3 in tax per gallon, still making gas a bargain compared with Europe, and use the extra billions to develop alternative energy sources. Then maybe you wouldn't see all the huge SUVs with one person in them.