Pieces To The Puzzle

• Emerging-market stocks head for longest losing streak since May


• The recent fallout in China has grabbed everyone's attention


• According to the Stock Trader's Almanac, the performance over the first 5 days is not very bullish


• Forget the January indicator! Set your sights on December's low


• Facts and figures from the well-known presidential cycle


• Yet another one: the Dicennial pattern


• Volatility: too low for too long?


• Already in 2007, there are signs the conventional wisdom is off


• Want to improve your economic forecasting? Watch the weather channel


• Money Supply and Recessions


• World's assets hit record value of $140 trillion ($)


• The sell real-estate and buy stocks trade is still seen as a major catalyst for 2007


• The bulls are also counting on buyouts and buybacks


• Some companies even pile on debt to pay for those buybacks


• Will 2007 be the year of the downsizing?


• Wall Street would love getting their hands on PIN money ($)


• The return of the day trader


• Commodities tumble presents opportunity?


• Will copper bounce from its long-term trendline? ($)


• There's gold in them thar hills


• Household heating expenses forecast to be 8% lower than last winter's


• Minnesota is poised to go green


• Speculators are piling into soft commodities


• Getting green from grain


• An interesting look into the worst-case scenario of California's water situation in the coming decades


• Big recovery seen for big biotech in 2007


• Biotech: a Democrat-proof investment?


• Mortgage applications are up as buyers see break in rates


• "This [housing] market downturn came out of nowhere, like a snowstorm. It surprised everybody, especially the people making mortgage payments." - Jerry Krecicki


• A lingering chill for homebuilder D.R. Horton


• Right now an annual income of about $85,000 is needed to afford median-priced homes


• Another nail in the housing market coffin


• Move over Libor, it's time for China's Shibor


• Macau is the world's biggest jackpot


• A reader asked me this week how to invest in Vietnam. Here's one article I found in reply


• Venezuelan plan shakes investors


• Morningstar's 2007 Outlook


• Morningstar's fair value estimates for the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq


• 10 themes that dominated the markets in 2006: Part I & II


• Ben Stein's investing strategies for the new year


• Michael J. Panzner breaks down Byron Wien's top surprises at his new blog


• Jon Markman's 8 earthshaking surprises coming in 2007


• Goldilocks vs. a few bears


• FedEx (FDX) is a new favorite pick among the newsletter gurus


• Verizon's $18 billion dollar gamble


• Vasco shares show vigor


• The Fords: Managing a Dynasty


• The perks of being a Googler (sounds like the stuff we once heard about Enron)


• A very useful performance review of the AAII's stocks screens (pay attention to the winning characteristics & screens identified)


• John Dorfman digs through last year's garbage bin


• The #1 favorite stocks by other members according to the 2007 membership survey ($)


• Bill Miller's internet stock revenge


• Harry Domash's 9 value stocks for impatient investors


• Altucher's 10 high-yield tech stocks


• Standard & Poor's foreign ADR screen turns up 5 picks


• The Sivy 70


• Forbes' stocks that look pricey and 5 earnings revision plays


• 10 stocks rising on unusually high volume


• Should you buy into the 10 hot stocks for 2007 hype?


• If you don't stay humble, the market will humble you


• George Kleinman's lessons for 2007


• More often than not, despised stocks wallop the favored ones


• "It turns out that I can find little evidence that the traditional asset classes are becoming more correlated." - Mark Hulbert


• Brett Steenbarger tracks the bull and bear days


• Importance of Risk Management ($)


• But, fear can cost you money


• Where should you put your money - in last year's losing or winning stocks? Sam Stovall runs the numbers


• However, are you really immune to recency bias?


• To find hotter mutual funds, go with the winners and the losers ($)


• The S&P 500 index left about 80% of mutual fund stock pickers in its dust during the last year


• Paul Merriman's ultimate buy & hold?


• Social & religious funds have big returns


• ETF growth is taking investors by storm


• When good choices are limited in certain categories, consider using ETFs


• 10 ETF trends for 2007


• The new India ETF draws criticism


• Global ETFs: Overbought/Oversold


• Simple, but excellent ETF advice from one of the world's best investors


• An interesting look at long-term performance by market cap


• Ph.D.s at Barclays build a hedge fund giant


• Henry Blodget's recommendation on hedge funds


• "Hedge funds in the years ahead are likely to be a sucker’s game." - Daniel Akst


• Daily FX volume could top $3 trillion this year


• Scam artists are increasingly using currency-trading schemes to ensnare even experienced investors ($)


• New twist on backdating scheme rips off stockholders


• Revised executive pay disclosures are coming soon


• Private annuity trusts await death


• The Dems try to pull a fast one with those Democracy Bonds


• Rocketman!


• The most useful new gadget I've seen so far this week


• I agree, a tidy work space saves time and money


• Common sense ways to work exercise into a busy day ($)


• "It's all right to make mistakes. If you aren't making mistakes, you aren't learning. But it's absolutely unacceptable to repeat those mistakes." - Dr. Alexander Elder