Commodity HQ: GDX vs. SIL vs. CU - How They've Performed So Far In 2012

It has been an interesting year for investors and traders focused on the metals. While ongoing economic uncertainty and recent additional monetary stimulus from the Fed has kept gold in the news, silver has quietly had a strong run as well. Amidst that uncertainty, industrial metals like copper have not done nearly so well.



What has that background meant for the leading metal miner ETFs?

Please read more here:
http://commodityhq.com/2012/gdx-vs-sil-vs-cu-how-theyve-performed-so-far-in-2012/

Commodity HQ: Gold Stocks To Play QE3

With QE3 now an announced fact, gold has come back into the spotlight. While the actual historical performance of gold as an inflation hedge is more mixed than some goldbugs realize, the reality is that gold has done pretty well during most prior periods of monetary stimulus. Moreover, with the ongoing uncertainty regarding the economic health and future of Europe, the United States, Japan and China, gold’s demonstrated value as a hedge against uncertainty may also come into play.



Investors have a variety of ways to use gold to enhance or secure the performance of their portfolio. Here are five names to consider.

Please read more here:
http://commodityhq.com/2012/gold-stocks-to-play-qe3/

Commodity HQ: 5 Commodity ETFs With Active Options

Options are, and please pardon the obvious pun, an invaluable option when it comes to crafting trading and investment strategies. At the simplest level, options offer a relatively simple and straightforward form of leverage for investors who want more to pursue more aggressive strategies. Options can also be very useful in hedging risk, creating income from securities that do not otherwise pay dividends, and executing strategies that exploit mispricings tied to volatility, timing and other factors.



While there are a host of stocks with active (liquid) options contracts, and likewise many liquid index options, that’s not always the case with options on ETFs. It’s also very important to note that while index options are European-style, ETF options are American-style options. All of that said, here are some of the commodity-related ETFs with the most active options [for more commodity ETF news and analysis subscribe to our free newsletter].

Please read more here:
http://commodityhq.com/2012/5-commodity-etfs-with-active-options/

FinancialEdge: 5 Investment Ideas Heating Up Right Now

Give Wall Street a little credit - if there is a demand for a product, they will meet it. If there is no demand for a product, they will figure out how to create that demand. With investors back out of their bunkers and looking to put money to work, Wall Street and Main Street have been working overtime to meet that demand. While not all of these ideas are new per se, many are seeing a resurgence in investor interest, and new themes and sub-types are emerging to siphon off some of that demand. (To learn more, check out The Wall-Street Animal Farm: Getting To Know The Lingo.)

Gold
The idea that gold is pretty popular these days is hardly new, but gold bugs are getting increasingly inventive. The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE: GDX) has lagged the SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD) of late, but the Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (Nasdaq: GDXJ) has been hot.

Going a step further, would-be investors are apparently trying to get more of the actual metal in their hands. Demand for minted gold coins continues to run hot, with many mints forced to limit order sizes to see that no customer goes away entirely empty-handed. And now this - gold-dispensing ATMs are on their way to the U.S. 


Please click the link for the full text:
http://financialedge.investopedia.com/financial-edge/1110/5-Investment-Ideas-That-Are-Trending.aspx