This Week in Barrons - 5-11-2014

This Week in Barrons – 5-11-2014

I must have missed something…

I must have missed something, or maybe I just didn't pay attention when I was growing up – but (way back then) we didn't seem to need the level of diversity training, grief counseling, and classes on ‘understanding others’ that are present today.  Maybe it was my parents, but I personally grew up oblivious to race, color, creed or sex, but rather strictly focused on results.  I’ve been trying to understand the most recent social engineering of the U.S. – that embraces a homogenous, one size, one thought fits all attitude.

Maybe I missed something but (more and more) people seem to be saying one thing and doing another.  The political candidate that shakes hands and kisses babies – suddenly gets busted for tax evasion, larceny, and insider trading.  The individual leading the ‘family power’ workshop – gets caught cheating with the spa manager. 

And I know that I missed this: Where has regular face-to-face, ear-to-ear conversation gone?  We now have Yik-Yak – a smart phone application that lets anyone post anything in message form – without identification.  That’s right, there is no username or password.  You are completely anonymous.  Imagine the shear number of people that are being insulted at will, be-rated 24/7, about anything and everything.

There have always been haters, cheaters, liars, and jerks.  Heck, in 1970 one of the most popular shows was: “All in the Family” – with ‘Archie Bunker’.  This show (if shown today) would potentially land the producer in jail.  In 1970 it was exciting, meaningful, and challenging to laugh at ‘Archie’, and in many cases laugh at yourself as well.  ‘Archie’ exposed our differences, and tried to mend some of them through humor.  Unfortunately, today we have a quick ‘n easy escalation from humor – to lack of civility – to rudeness – and sometimes ending in violence.

Maybe I’m missing something, but isn’t this escalation of violence occurring DESPITE all of the social engineering efforts that are taking place?  And this level of violence is occurring while the economy is still functioning.  What happens when things really get tough?  Last week, 44 people were shot in Chicago.  And last week the EBT cards were still functioning.  What happens when the EBT cards don’t work?  If we can see these levels of evil in ‘good times’, what unspeakable evils will we see during a melt down?

Last week I discovered that every Federal agency (right down to and including the Post Office) has been buying hundreds of thousands (in some cases – millions) of rounds of lethal ammunition.  Why is this?  I think they know that the economy and our currency are doomed, and when they fail (if things don't go well), all heck is going to break loose. So they’re buying up billions of rounds of ammo to protect themselves against John Q. Public if/when society breaks down.

To get a hint of where a society can go in a hurry, simply watch some of the real videos that are coming out of the Ukraine.  You’ll see mobs cutting off people’s legs, burning people alive, and beating people to death with blunt instruments.  That could be the U.S.  Look at the Yik-Yak posts.  Look at our inner city violence.  Look at our lack of face-to-face, and ear-to-ear communication.  The U.S. is one banking holiday / one EBT system failure away from these videos.  

Wow, I really must have missed something along the way?

The Market...

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone that has the toughest job in the world – being a Mom!

Also, a quick shout out to S.F. for reminding me about the Chinese currency (Renminbi) situation.   Recently, China’s Third Plenum voted in the boldest package of policies seen in decades.  Beijing is freeing up interest rates for foreign-currency deposits, easing restrictions on cross-border capital flows in the Shanghai free-trade zone, easing foreign investors access to Chinese markets and the daily trading band for the Renminbi-dollar rate has now been doubled to plus or minus 2%.  They have deregulated their services sectors, simplified their customs clearance, settled cross-border trade disputes, allowed two-way portfolio investment, and have allowed foreign companies to issue Renminbi bonds and access the domestic equity market themselves.  In light of all this, I now expect full Renminbi convertibility to come earlier than expected.  As Renminbi internationalization and financial reforms accelerate, their currency’s role in global reserve management should expand quickly.  I think very soon we will see a multiple reserve currency system in which the Dollar, Euro and Renminbi all play their part.

On Friday, we saw the DOW close at a new, all-time high.  And why wouldn't it?

-       Didn't the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) just disappoint to the downside?

-       Aren't home sales falling like a rock?

-       Wasn’t the most recent ‘Jobs Report’ horrible?

-       Aren't more small businesses closing than opening? 

Through a wicked twist of fate, it appears that the worse the numbers get – the higher we go on the DOW.  I guess that if we had all out nuclear war – we would see the DOW touch 25,000.  This market is being pushed higher despite the facts.  Yes - this is ‘Bubble Mania’ Part 2.

I’m guessing that the thinking on ‘The Street’ goes something like this:

-       The only way to get any return on your money is through buying either junk bonds or stocks.

-       Treasuries are paying less than inflation – so you're losing money.

-       Emerging markets are much too volatile.

-       The Fed has proven that if things start falling apart, they will rush in and hand out free money and support the market.

-       Therefore, stocks are the ONLY place to be right now.

But right now, there’s one big difference.  China continues to amass huge stockpiles of gold.  In the last year, China amassed (what amounts to) the entire worlds production of the metal.  Meanwhile, our gold storage amounts continue to decline – as we encourage ‘paper money’ being our ultimate salvation.  When you contrast what the East is doing with what America is doing, you can see why the West is in real trouble.  The U.S. encourages its citizens to go out and spend their savings on newer gadgets, and to accumulate large amounts of debt in order to increase consumption.  The Chinese authorities are encouraging their citizens to save in gold, store it in a safe place, and to be fiscally prudent.  Which culture will truly prosper?  Time will tell, but I'm leaning toward the East.

The point being, when you can ‘easily’ print paper dollars, you can always have a market hit all-time highs during a fading economy.  An economy where: (a) 93 million are unemployed, and (b) one out of every five citizens is on Government assistance.  John Q. Public sees the markets hit new highs, and figures that it's okay to go into more debt because ‘everything must be fine’.  It’s not.  On Thursday we saw the credit numbers explode by an additional $17 Billion.  All of the additional borrowing was due to student loans, and sub-prime car loans.  If you think that's healthy, you too have swallowed the Kool-Aid.

While the DOW has closed at an all-time high, the S&P has a way to go.  The reason is simple.  It is much easier to drive 30 stocks higher (the DOW), than to move the S&P (500 stocks).  Therefore, the S&P is not ‘breaking out’ as of yet.  On Friday the XLF (a financial sector ETF) did NOT even go positive on the day.  So, while the DOW put on a ‘brave face’ for the weekend, the broader market is still range bound.  In fact, the Russell 2000 (a measure of small to medium sized companies) – is actually in correction territory – down 10% from its highs.

Finally, the Ukraine tends to move from one headline to the next so fast that everything is ‘yesterdays weather’.  But I assure you, the Ukraine is not yesterday, but rather it is today and tomorrow.  If they pull off the referendum vote on Sunday, and by Monday we see that half of the Ukraine wants to be ‘Russian’, what next?  Do the U.S. and Europe introduce more sanctions, provocation, and warships?  What happens when Russia starts with their own sanctions against the U.S. and Europe?  Where does the fallout end?

The bottom line is that we're in a stranger position right now than I think I can remember.  If nothing goes ‘bump in the night’, the FED can keep printing and keep pushing the DOW higher.  But the right ‘bump’ could cause a flash crash – the likes of which we haven't seen in a long time.  Until the S&P puts in a few closing highs above the old all-time highs, I continue to tread lightly or not at all.

Tips:

Congrats to those of you who were with me on some of last weeks earnings trades: (mostly Call Credit Spreads) on: SSYS, TSLA, PCLN, QIHU, and GOOGL.

TLT (the Bond market ETF) touched $111.20 on Friday – which was my buy signal to purchase more June and July calls.  TLT has been a channel trade for the past 6 months.  That means you purchase at the bottom of the channel (in this case around $111.20) and sell when it reaches the top of its channel – in this case around $114.  TLT is also interesting because when it starts to decline – those declines normally last 4 to 5 days – then it’s time to buy again.

My faith in the long end of this market continues to reside in the energy sector, and specifically in small energy stocks such as:  BXE ($9.37), FET ($31.61), FPP ($5.17), HK ($5.69), PFIE ($3.84), HTM ($0.71), PQ ($6.20), and VTNR ($8.93). 

I’m also a buyer of both Gold (GLD) and Silver (SLV) at these levels.

My current short-term holds are:

-       MNKD – in @ $6.35 – (currently $6.22),

-       TLT – in @ $106.22 – (currently $111.24 – bought more on Friday),

-       USO (Oil) – in @ $37.19 - (currently $36.40),

-       BXE (Oil) – in @ $9.11 – (currently $9.37),

-       FET (Energy) – in @ 30.42 – (currently $31.61)

-       FPP (Oil) – in @ $5.32 – (currently $5.17),

-       HK (Energy) – in @ $5.25 – (currently $5.69),

-       HTM (Energy) – in @ $0.75 – (currently $0.71),

-       LSCC (Tech) – in @ $7.85 – (currently $7.87),

-       LSG (Gold) – in @ $0.78 – (currently $0.78),

-       NGLS (Nat Gas) – in @ 60.11 – (currently $61.63),

-       PFIE (Energy) – in @ $4.47 – (currently $3.84),

-       POZN (Pharma.) – in @ $8.68 – (currently $8.39),

-       PQ (Energy) – in @ $5.69 – (currently $6.20),

-       PTIE (Pain Tmt.) – in @ $5.34 – (currently $5.07),

-       RFMD (Tech) – in @ $7.96 – (currently $8.78),

-       VTNR (Energy) – in @ 7.02 – (currently $8.93<

-       SIL (Silver) – in at 24.51 - (currently 12.54) – no stop,

-       GLD (ETF for Gold) – in at 158.28, (currently 124.10) – no stop ($1,289.25 per physical ounce), AND

-       SLV (ETF for Silver) – in at 28.3 (currently 18.42) – no stop ($19.21 per physical ounce).

To follow me on Twitter and get my daily thoughts and trades – my handle is: taylorpamm. 

Please be safe out there!

Disclaimer:

Expressed thoughts proffered within the BARRONS REPORT, a Private and free weekly economic newsletter, are those of noted entrepreneur, professor and author, R.F. Culbertson, contributing sources and those he interviews.  You can learn more and get your free subscription by visiting: <http://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com> .

Please write to Mr. Culbertson at: <rfc@culbertsons.com> to inform him of any reproductions, including when and where copy will be reproduced. You may use in complete form or, if quoting in brief, reference <rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com>.

If you'd like to view RF's actual stock trades - and see more of his thoughts - please feel free to sign up as a Twitter follower -  "taylorpamm" is the handle.

If you'd like to see RF in action - teaching people about investing - please feel free to view the TED talk that he gave on Fearless Investing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Z9I_6ciH0

To unsubscribe please refer to the bottom of the email.

Views expressed are provided for information purposes only and should not be construed in any way as an offer, an endorsement, or inducement to invest and is not in any way a testimony of, or associated with Mr. Culbertson's other firms or associations.  Mr. Culbertson and related parties are not registered and licensed brokers.  This message may contain information that is confidential or privileged and is intended only for the individual or entity named above and does not constitute an offer for or advice about any alternative investment product. Such advice can only be made when accompanied by a prospectus or similar offering document.  Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Please make sure to review important disclosures at the end of each article.

Note: Joining BARRONS REPORT is not an offering for any investment. It represents only the opinions of RF Culbertson and Associates.

PAST RESULTS ARE NOT INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS. THERE IS RISK OF LOSS AS WELL AS THE OPPORTUNITY FOR GAIN WHEN INVESTING IN MANAGED FUNDS. WHEN CONSIDERING ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENTS (INCLUDING HEDGE FUNDS) AN INVESTOR SHOULD CONSIDER VARIOUS RISKS INCLUDING THE FACT THAT SOME PRODUCTS AND OTHER SPECULATIVE INVESTMENT PRACTICES MAY INCREASE RISK OF INVESTMENT LOSS; MAY NOT BE SUBJECT TO THE SAME REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS AS MUTUAL FUNDS, OFTEN CHARGE HIGH FEES, AND IN MANY CASES THE UNDERLYING INVESTMENTS ARE NOT TRANSPARENT AND ARE KNOWN ONLY TO THE INVESTMENT MANAGER.

Alternative investment performance can be volatile. An investor could lose all or a substantial amount of his or her investment. Often, alternative investment fund and account managers have total trading authority over their funds or accounts; the use of a single advisor applying generally similar trading programs could mean lack of diversification and, consequently, higher risk. There is often no secondary market for an investor's interest in alternative investments, and none is expected to develop.

All material presented herein is believed to be reliable but we cannot attest to its accuracy. Opinions expressed in these reports may change without prior notice. Culbertson and/or the staff may or may not have investments in any funds cited above.

Remember the Blog: <http://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com/> 
Until next week – be safe.

R.F. Culbertson

<mailto:rfc@culbertsons.com>

<http://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com>

This Week in Barrons - 5-4-2014

This Week in Barrons – 5-4-2014

Once again - Let’s pretty-up that Pig

On Friday we received the most recent Non-Farm Payroll Report, and they certainly put an extra coat of lipstick on that pig.  Let’s talk about that, the Ukraine, and the world’s push to distance itself from the U.S.

A week or so ago, I mentioned that we would start to see much better economic news hitting the wires.  It’s NOT because the economy is warming up, because it’s NOT.  It’s NOT because the Fed's QE programs are finally working, because they’re NOT.  It is because our Government’s PR machine has kicked into full gear.  Democrats (that have stood by the President for years) are divorcing him in droves for fear of losing their mid-term elections.  Because most people have been trained to think that a rising stock market equates to a good economy, the directive from the top has been to keep this ‘pig’ lookin’ good at all times.  Make the stock market the poster child for the Democrats.

Friday we received the Non-Farm Payroll (Jobs) Report.  The report showed that the U.S. had gained 288K jobs.  Unfortunately the ‘Birth/Death’ portion of the report created 235,000 of those jobs.  Leaving only 53,000 jobs as being ‘real’ jobs created during the previous month.  Allow me to briefly explain the ‘Birth/Death’ model.  Decades ago an algorithm was created that said for every ‘X’ number of people fired / laid-off from a job – some percentage of those people will go out, open a business and hire – below the radar.  There is no proof that these jobs exist, no tax receipts, no 1099’s, no anything.  It's simply an estimate based upon historical performance.  The issue with ‘historical performance’ is that it ‘does not guarantee future results.’  Factually – the U.S. created the fewest small businesses in its history in 2013, and is on an even worse course for 2014.  I’m thinking that the birth/deal algorithms need a bit of tweaking.  I have trouble believing that 235,000 jobs were created by: unemployed people with too much debt, no savings, and no ability to put together $2,000 in case of an emergency. 

However, the ‘real numbers’ showed a much more earth-shattering conclusion.  The U.S. labor participation rate fell to its lowest level in RECORDED HISTORY.  The ‘Jobs’ Report highlighted a big drop in the unemployment rate from 6.7% to just 6.3%.  But, the unemployment rate calculation currently ignores everyone who has ‘given up’ looking for work.  Our government (when trying to get the unemployment rate to show a smaller number) modified the calculation and determined that if someone ‘gave up’ looking for a job, they are no longer unemployed.  Last month – 806,000 people simply ‘gave up’ looking for work – were dropped from the ranks of the unemployed – and the unemployment fell from 6.7% to 6.3% for all the wrong reasons.  But it gets better.  When reviewing the data, the only people getting hired are ‘old people’.  The 25 - 55 year old segment actually LOST about 200K jobs.  You can expect more Government PR as we move closer to the elections, unless we are in a true war with Russia.

I believe that a global currency ‘reset’ is coming.  This notion took a giant step forward last week as the Chinese have aligned themselves with multiple nations to do business in the Yuan (their currency) and bypass the U.S. dollar.  The reason that the US dollar is the Global reserve currency is because everyone needed oil, and oil (previous to this year) could only be purchased with U.S. dollars.  This ‘Petro-Dollar’ was set up decades ago by an agreement between the U.S. and the Saudi’s.  This assured the U.S. that every nation had to keep a stockpile of U.S. dollars so they could import oil.

China does not want U.S. dollars, but rather wants their own currency (ultimately backed by Gold) to be an important global player.  They have created alliances around the world to do trade in native currencies instead of the dollar.  We are days away from "full convertibility" – where the Yuan will be exchangeable for any currency.  The Chinese see a day where their Yuan (backed by gold), will be seen as the most stable global currency, and the U.S. politicians will no longer be able to ‘print’ all the dollars they want.

This timetable has been accelerated by the U.S.’s botched coup of the Ukraine, which pushed Russia and China ever closer.  Russia doesn’t trust the U.S. politicians and has been turning its attention toward energy trades – actively making ‘oil for goods’ deals with Iran, Brazil, Turkey, North Korea, etc. 

Bottom line, the nations of the world that produce hard-assets like oil, coal, copper, etc. are tired of having to deal with a depreciating currency such as the U.S. dollar.  They're tired of exchange rates that fluctuate daily because the global currency isn't fixed to something solid like Gold.  They're smart.  They want to ‘peg’ a currency to Gold and set a price that their currency will ALWAYS be worth.  

I think that in May 2014, Russia will announce a sweeping deal with China concerning supplying them with enormous amounts of natural gas and even oil.  I also think that we will hear that China has set up stronger alliances, with the oil-producing nations – and will begin to abandon the U.S. dollar completely.

I think that the U.S. didn’t initiate the Ukraine coup just to place NATO forces closer to Russian border, but rather as a measure of standing closer to Europe, the Euro and solidifying the U.S. dollar.  We realize that the U.S. dollar standard is on the ropes.  Remember to continue to exchange dollars for real assets – such as gold, silver and real estate – every chance you get.  Many elements will play out over the next two years, and some of it could be dramatic.  Please, be safe out there.

The Market...

The stock market ran right back up to its all-time highs, and then the air came out – again.  On Friday, they tried rallying the market based upon the jobs report, but even the banksters couldn’t justify using it as an excuse to push stocks higher.  On top of that, nobody wanted to get brave in front of yet another Ukraine weekend.  But if nothing happens over the weekend in the Ukraine, will the beginning of the week be green?

Last week, the market was set up technically to roll over and correct, and our FED simply stepped in and jammed us higher.  We've seen that happen over 18 times in the last three years.  Well – here we are again.  We hit the all-time highs, didn't break through and hold, but rather faded off a bit.  If you used logic, you'd say that the market should go down.  However, this market doesn’t run on logic or fundamentals, but rather FED money.  So saying that some kind of ‘top’ is in has been an exercise in frustration.

I think the only way you can navigate this mess is to simply keep buying good set ups, until the market finally does break.  Currently, I’m watch 4 general areas:

-       The Bond Market, which can be viewed via TLT – an ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) for the Bond market.

-       The Stock Market Indices, which break out into:

o   The IWM – the Russell Index for Small Cap Companies,

o   The QQQ – the NASDAQ Index,

o   The DIA – the Dow Jones Industrial Large Cap Index, and

o   The SPY – the S&P 500 Index.

-       The Currency Market, normally viewed via U.S. Dollar, U.K. Pound, Chinese Yuan, German DM, etc.

-       AND the correlated assets such as Gold, Oil, and Silver.

I watch the money flow between these 4 main areas, and recently – the money has been flowing into Bonds (TLT) – making any ‘pullback’ in the TLT a buyable event.  Often there is a direct correlation between a country’s bond market and their currency.  For example: as the U.K. Bonds are going higher – so is the British Pound Sterling.  As the German Bonds are going higher – so is the German Deutsch Mark.  Unfortunately in the U.S. this correlation is NOT holding.  As U.S. Bonds are going higher, the US dollar is trending lower, and this is indeed disturbing (as both are ‘flight to quality’ vehicles).   Couple this with the fact that the Dollar index is in a ‘technical-squeeze’.  The last ‘technical-squeeze’ for the U.S. dollar occurred 12 years ago resulting in a huge decline in the dollar and the resulting rise in Gold.  We could be set-up ‘technically’ for a very volatile (and similar) time period.

Next week – with some new cash coming into a market – we could see the QQQ and IWM rally for a couple days – giving us the opportunity to sell ‘call credit spreads’ on many of our favorite stocks of the past.  However remember the adage: “Sell in May, and go away.”  Later in the week and throughout the month – we could replicate the pattern of small rises in the beginning of the week – coupled with declines near the end.  These are perfect opportunities for buying and holding TLT (believing bonds are going higher), and for selling Call Credit Spreads – believing specific stocks (at least for the short term) are moving lower.

Tips:

Congrats to those of you who grabbed the TLT trade with me.  A double within a week is nothing to sneeze at.  For this week: again watch TLT ($112.88) as it potentially has a date to retest its $130 highs.  TLT is a ‘bond market’ ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) that when the market goes ‘Up’ – trades sideways, and when the market goes ‘Down’ – trades nicely higher.  Options in TLT virtually doubled last week – so I took some ‘off the table’ on Friday afternoon.  I will certainly ‘load up’ again in TLT on any move lower.  By ‘load up’ I mean purchase equal amounts of Delta 70 and Delta 20 Calls between 60 and 100 days out. 

-       In this case I would be buying the July, $100 Calls for approximately $3.50 / and a corresponding dollar amount of the July, $117 Calls for approximately $0.60. 

-       You could also purchase the June 110’s and 117’s if you wish a slightly shorter time horizon.

Mannkind Pharmaceuticals MNKD ($6.35) has earnings this week – so expect it to be volatile – and the $6.50 options are offering a nice premium of 3%.  This week, I’m also going to play Tesla (TSLA) and many of the old ‘high-flyers’ (BIDU, CELG, GOOG, CMG, LNKD, TWTR and QIHU) by selling 1 to 1.5 SD (standard deviation) – out of the money, weekly ‘Call Credit Spreads’.  For example:  Tesla (TSLA) is currently selling for approx. $211 / share. 

-       If TSLA rallies $14 on Monday and Tuesday and sits @ $225 on Wednesday.

-       The TSLA ‘standard deviation’ (expected move) is $25.

-       Sell the May 9^th, weekly, ($225 + $25) $250 Call Option – and pocket $1.50 per share,

-       Buy the May 9^th, weekly, $255 Call Option (for protection – in case Tesla went higher on great news) – paying $1.11

-       You would net the difference of $0.40 per share for the week. 

-       The probability of this trade working as outlined above is 92% - very high indeed. 

A shout out to AAM (a very observant reader), who noticed that a more efficient use of capital on DUST and NUGT would be to sell the 1.5 standard deviation, out of the money, Put Credit Spreads on each of them.  It worked well last week – THANKS.

I think the long-strength in this market resides in Apple (AAPL) which is acting more like a Bond than a Stock, and in the energy stocks such as Exxon Mobile (XOM) and Schlumberger (SLB).  I also like our smaller energy plays: BXE ($10), FPP ($5.40), HK ($5.51), PFIE ($4.06), HTM ($0.77), PQ ($5.88), VTNR ($8.10) and FET ($30.53). 

My current short-term holds are:

-       MNKD – in @ $6.35 – (currently $6.35 – w/ 3+% per week yield on the $6.50 covered call option),

-       TLT – in @ $106.22 – (currently $112.88), - Sold much of our position on Friday – will dive in early week on any pull-back

-       USO (Oil) – in @ $37.19 - (currently $36.30),

-       BXE (Oil) – in @ $9.11 – (currently $10.00),

-       FPP (Oil) – in @ $5.32 – (currently $5.40),

-       HK (Energy) – in @ $5.25 – (currently $5.51),

-       LSCC (Tech) – in @ $7.85 – (currently $8.18),

-       LSG (Gold) – in @ $0.78 – (currently $0.82),

-       NGLS (Nat Gas) – in @ 60.11 – (currently $60.00),

-       PFIE (Energy) – in @ $4.47 – (currently $4.06),

-       POZN (Pharma.) – in @ $8.68 – (currently $8.20),

-       PTIE (Pain Tmt.) – in @ $5.34 – (currently $5.49),

-       RFMD (Tech) – in @ $7.96 – (currently $8.65),

-       SIL (Silver) – in at 24.51 - (currently 12.54) – no stop,

-       GLD (ETF for Gold) – in at 158.28, (currently 125.06) – no stop ($1,300 per physical ounce), AND

-       SLV (ETF for Silver) – in at 28.3 (currently 18.69) – no stop ($19.52 per physical ounce).

To follow me on Twitter and get my daily thoughts and trades – my handle is: taylorpamm. 

Please be safe out there!

Disclaimer:

Expressed thoughts proffered within the BARRONS REPORT, a Private and free weekly economic newsletter, are those of noted entrepreneur, professor and author, R.F. Culbertson, contributing sources and those he interviews.  You can learn more and get your free subscription by visiting: <http://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com> .

Please write to Mr. Culbertson at: <rfc@culbertsons.com> to inform him of any reproductions, including when and where copy will be reproduced. You may use in complete form or, if quoting in brief, reference <rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com>.

If you'd like to view RF's actual stock trades - and see more of his thoughts - please feel free to sign up as a Twitter follower -  "taylorpamm" is the handle.

If you'd like to see RF in action - teaching people about investing - please feel free to view the TED talk that he gave on Fearless Investing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Z9I_6ciH0

To unsubscribe please refer to the bottom of the email.

Views expressed are provided for information purposes only and should not be construed in any way as an offer, an endorsement, or inducement to invest and is not in any way a testimony of, or associated with Mr. Culbertson's other firms or associations.  Mr. Culbertson and related parties are not registered and licensed brokers.  This message may contain information that is confidential or privileged and is intended only for the individual or entity named above and does not constitute an offer for or advice about any alternative investment product. Such advice can only be made when accompanied by a prospectus or similar offering document.  Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Please make sure to review important disclosures at the end of each article.

Note: Joining BARRONS REPORT is not an offering for any investment. It represents only the opinions of RF Culbertson and Associates.

PAST RESULTS ARE NOT INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS. THERE IS RISK OF LOSS AS WELL AS THE OPPORTUNITY FOR GAIN WHEN INVESTING IN MANAGED FUNDS. WHEN CONSIDERING ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENTS (INCLUDING HEDGE FUNDS) AN INVESTOR SHOULD CONSIDER VARIOUS RISKS INCLUDING THE FACT THAT SOME PRODUCTS AND OTHER SPECULATIVE INVESTMENT PRACTICES MAY INCREASE RISK OF INVESTMENT LOSS; MAY NOT BE SUBJECT TO THE SAME REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS AS MUTUAL FUNDS, OFTEN CHARGE HIGH FEES, AND IN MANY CASES THE UNDERLYING INVESTMENTS ARE NOT TRANSPARENT AND ARE KNOWN ONLY TO THE INVESTMENT MANAGER.

Alternative investment performance can be volatile. An investor could lose all or a substantial amount of his or her investment. Often, alternative investment fund and account managers have total trading authority over their funds or accounts; the use of a single advisor applying generally similar trading programs could mean lack of diversification and, consequently, higher risk. There is often no secondary market for an investor's interest in alternative investments, and none is expected to develop.

All material presented herein is believed to be reliable but we cannot attest to its accuracy. Opinions expressed in these reports may change without prior notice. Culbertson and/or the staff may or may not have investments in any funds cited above.

Remember the Blog: <http://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com/> 
Until next week – be safe.

R.F. Culbertson

<mailto:rfc@culbertsons.com>

<http://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com>