Small Biotech $AVII to Trade Actively Monday on Barron's Spec

The herd has been summoned.
At $1.56, expect this puppy to surge early on heavy volume.

Boomer Consumer - WSJ

Pearl Jam - The Fixer

New 3X Leveraged ETFs for Daily S&P 500 Trades

ProShares introduced 3X leveraged ETFs today for daily swings in the S&P 500. UPRO is the bullish play, SPXU the bearish. Volumes were light today, but are sure to pick up as word spreads. Use intraday with caution, or just short either one of them and hang on for months. Permalinks in the sidebar.

Even in the best of times, the 401(k) wasn't perfect.

Fortune Magazine examines 401(k) alternatives.

The Hijacking of Retirement in America: the 401k Flim-Flam: 60 Minutes

More 3X Leveraged ETFs from Direxion

Two BULL and two BEAR 3X funds from Direxion for U.S. Treasuries, 10-year and 30-year. Links for the 30-year have been added under 3X ETFs on the sidebar. Unless you're a frenetic day-trader, don't go long either of them. In fact, you could short either one and win in time, due to churn decay. But the no-brainer is shorting the BULL (TMF) as the safety trade unwinds.

Gomez: See The World @ 9:30 Club;Washington, DC March 29, 2009

You Can Follow LOS on Twitter

Updates are sporadic at best.  I would highly encourage any day-traders to take advantage of StockTwits, a great forum for floating ideas in real time.

Stimulis: Economic Performance Enhancement

Shoutout to stevenplace for the find.

30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate Sticks Over 5%

After flirting with a 4-handle two weeks ago, spurring a spate of refinancing, average national rates have popped back up to 5.42%.  According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, refis account for over 80% of all new mortgage applications. 

Ruble at Lowest Level Since '98 Crisis

Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The ruble fell below the weakest level seen in the 1998 Russian crisis after the central bank devalued for the sixth time in seven days to protect reserves.

The currency slid to as little as 33.0455 per dollar today, the lowest since early 1998, before the government defaulted on $40 billion of debt. The ruble has lost 7.3 percent since official trading resumed this year, extending the decline to 29 percent since August.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin pledged last month to use the nation’s foreign-exchange reserves to avoid “sharp” currency swings, after the 71 percent decline against the dollar in 1998 caused investors to flee and savers to pull bank deposits. Investors have withdrawn $245 billion from Russia since August as a 69 percent drop in oil, Russia’s war with Georgia and the disruption to gas exports exacerbated the effect of the global financial crisis, according to BNP Paribas SA data.

“Fear of another devaluation means nobody wants to buy rubles right now,” said Lars Rasmussen, an emerging markets analyst in Copenhagen at Danske Bank A/S, which rates itself among the five biggest traders of ruble in the world through Finnish subsidiary Samo Bank Plc. “The ruble has begun to look more and more overvalued because of the fall in the oil price.”

Russia’s reserves, the world’s third-largest, have dropped by $171.6 billion to $426.5 billion since August, as policy makers sold currency. The ruble weakened 1.4 percent to 37.8179 against the basket by 1:29 p.m. in Moscow, extending this year’s drop to 6.8 percent.

3-month rubles/$

"We Are One" Concert

Photo credit: Natasha Perreault

Obama Condoms. Because Hope Is Not a Form of Protection.

Photo credit: Natasha Perreault

Inauguration Prep

Photo credit: Natasha Perreault

Escape From It All

Shoutout to Charles Amadeus for sharing this find.