From the category archives:

Alternative Investments

25 Best Personal Finance, Investing & Career Posts of 2009

After sharing the best posts from around the blogosphere in Personal Finance and Investing with yesterday’s Carnival of Personal Finance I realized I didn’t do a look-back at 2009 from Darwin’s Finance. In this list you’ll find thousands of dollars in money saving tips, career boosters, investing tricks and tax deduction ideas you may have [...]

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Advanta 11% Yield Investment Notes – Going, Going, Gone!

Advanta had been plastering their ads for high yield investment notes paying as high as 11% throughout my local paper and elsewhere for the past several months and I’d decided to investigate a bit further. Given the low interest rate environment we’re in and my presumption that any company offering such a premium over market [...]

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Gold Hype? You’re Being Taken for a Ride

There’s been much fanfare made of gold breaking an all-time high in US Dollar terms, even though the dollar has declined precipitously against virtually every foreign currency (so it’s not really appreciating that much in terms of other global currencies), but the trend is your friend and if you’re a momentum trader or fear inflation [...]

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Lazy Portfolios Beat the S&P – but Claims are Bogus and Deceiving

Marketwatch continues to post on Paul Farrell’s “Lazy Portfolios” that purport to “whip” the S&P500. While the premise of diversification and passive long term retirement investing is a good one, the claims of whippage are a bit overdone in my opinion and may lull naive investors into complacency when they should be scrutinizing their investments [...]

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Structured Notes: Products Deliver Guaranteed Returns in any Market

Structured notes are an oft-overlooked investment product since they aren’t widely publicized to retail investors and often come with rigid investor requirements. However, if you qualify and have a means to access structured notes from a reputable (and financially stable) investment firm, they may offer you the guaranteed returns you can’t get anywhere else – [...]

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How to Hedge Gas Prices and Put Money Back in your Pocket

What if I told you that you didn’t have to wrestle with skyrocketing gas prices again this summer like 2008? With oil prices reaching new highs again and gas prices trailing in lockstep, it’s time to think about how to hedge your exposure to increasing fuel prices and save money on gas by whatever means [...]

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The Riskiest ETFs on Earth – 3X Sector ETF Short/Long

The 3X Index ETFs from Direxion have been all the rage since they launched and picked up traction on the heels of the Proshares 2X Index ETFs of yesteryear, going Long or Short various indices as outlined below. For the uninitiated, you can now get triple the return of say, an energy ETF or emerging [...]

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Advanta Freezes Credit Cards – High Yield Notes in Jeopardy?

In a desperate attempt to preserve capital, Advanta has halted all charges from its small business customers after June 10. This is especially disturbing to not just small business card holders, but also, the thousands of individuals holding their high yield investment notes (see initial skeptical article 1 month ago on Advanta Investment Notes). In [...]

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Advanta High Yield Notes: 8.5% – 11% Yield Worth the Risk?

I continue to read with interest the advertisements in my local paper for these Advanta high yield investment notes. Currently, they’re offering a 1 year note at 8.5%, a 2 year note at 10% and a 10 year note at 11%. These are exceedingly high yield investment notes, especially in light of the current low [...]

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