Saturday, April 9, 2011

Given our chaotic times, you may be wondering how to protect your investments against some sudden, unforeseen event: a stock market meltdown, a crisis in the banking system or an invasion of Venusian brain gargles. You have several ways to reduce the risk of a stock portfolio. But you might consider funds that use techniques previously reserved for hedge funds, the freewheeling, lightly regulated investment pools of the very rich. The trick is finding a fund that uses hedge-fund techniques well. In finance, a hedge is a strategy designed to offset certain risks — hence the phrase “hedging your bets.” If we define risk as losing money, then a simple hedging strategy for a stock portfolio is diversification: Buy other investments, such as gold, government bonds or cash, whose value doesn't rise and fall in lockstep with the stock market. My opinion?....there : Portugal, Ireland and Greece should have defaulted, and started issuing there own currencies again, plain and simple.

Screw the EU and their prescriptions, screw the banks, and the Euro. No national government should prioritize the needs of a bunch of thieves over the needs of its own people.

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