Mark my words: Silver is going over $20 per ounce! Here’s why…

• Silver does great when people get worried about the market, inflation, and geopolitical risk. Monetary inflation is here – and it is only a matter of time before price and asset inflation arrive as well. Silver is a hard asset that holds its value in inflationary times and will maintain its purchasing power.

• Silver is an industrial metal, which means its price rises when global manufacturing activity picks up. Therefore, it should do quite well when we finally emerge from this economic crisis.

• Silver is in short supply, and the limited aboveground stockpiles are being depleted. With demand exceeding supply, prices for silver should continue to move higher.

• Finally, silver is in a technical uptrend.

Currently, silver is trading around $15 per ounce, already up 40 percent for the year. To take advantage of what is almost sure to be a continuing rise in price, you can buy silver bars or silver coins (e.g., American Silver Eagle bullion coins or Canadian Silver Maple Leaf coins). Physical silver can be stored in a home safe or in a secure hidden location that only you and another trusted person know about.

Another good way to invest in silver is with the silver exchange-traded fund (SLV). This ETF is very liquid and cost-effective.

Whether you choose to invest in bars, coins, or the SLV exchange-traded fund… make sure you own some silver.

[Ed. Note: Silver, gold, oil, agricultural commodities... Ted Peroulakis follows it all and tells you all about it in ETR's sister publication, Investor's Daily Edge. Sign up for free today.]

India is one of the world’s fastest-growing (and most stable) economies, with strength in its agriculture, textile, and service sectors. Services are its main source of economic growth, accounting for over half of India’s output with less than a third of its labor force. And India is on track to open up its retail, insurance, and banking sectors to more foreign investment. 

The Indian economy has been growing an average of 7 percent over the last 10 years, reducing poverty by about 10 percent over the same period. India had GDP growth of 8.5 percent in 2006, 9 percent in 2007, and 7.3 percent in 2008.

Since the election victory of the free-market-oriented Congress Party, the Bombay Stock Exchange has taken off. I expect billions of dollars’ worth of investment capital to flow into Indian stocks, and India’s economy is going to continue to soar.

You owe it to yourself to invest in India. Keep in mind, though, that developing markets tend to be volatile, so put only a small portion of your portfolio into any emerging market.

My favorite way to play India is with the PowerShares India Fund (PIN). This exchange-traded fund (ETF) has excellent profit potential. It has seen a great short-term gain of 32 percent since I first recommended it on April 9th. You don’t usually see big profits that fast, and it’s on track for more.

The fund is traded in the U.S., holds a nice basket of Indian stocks, and seeks to mirror the Indian stock market as measured by the Indus India index.

[Ed. Note: Ted Peroulakis brings his passion for the markets to his role as investment analyst with Investor's Daily Edge, Early to Rise's sister publication. You can read more of his great advice every day by signing up for free right here.]

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Do you have a mortgage with a variable or high interest rate? If you do, it makes a lot of sense to refinance. Thirty-year fixed-rate mortgages are currently only about 5 percent – and you want to lock in a low rate now, because inflation is on the horizon.

Inflation is coming due to the colossal amount of money that’s being created by the U.S. government to put toward the country’s economic problems. The country’s heavy debt load and deficit spending could also cause higher inflation. The government is on pace to spend $1.8 trillion more than it takes in this year, a record level of deficit spending. And the national debt is over $11 trillion.

Recently, the Fed has been cutting interest rates in an attempt to restart economic growth. But the Fed’s main job is to keep inflation at acceptable levels. So when inflation gets out of control (which it probably will when we finally emerge from this recession), they will have to increase interest rates. (You may remember that interest rates hit 18 percent in the 1970s under similar circumstances.)

Lock in that 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at today’s low 5 percent rate, before rates start to skyrocket. You’ll be glad you did.

[Ed. Note: Ted Peroulakis has dedicated his life to the study of finance, economics, and investments. You can read his take on the markets, natural resources, and more in ETR's sister publication, Investor's Daily Edge.

Meet Ted, as well as a half-dozen of the top minds in investment advising, in Miami in just a few days. Find out more about this exclusive financial conference here. ]

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These are risky times for investors. We are still suffering from a financial crisis and global recession. One way to ride out the turmoil is with blue-chip stocks that keep raising their dividends.

Companies that have a history of consistently raising their dividends have outperformed the market over time. They will survive and thrive no matter what happens in the economy. The best part? They put a growing stream of cash in your pocket. Plus, steady dividend growth helps counter inflation, which could rear its ugly head as a result of rampant government spending.

You want to invest in dividend-paying companies that are dominating players in their industry. These market leaders can easily raise prices to keep up with inflation – or lower prices to crush their competitors. Recessions and downturns actually make them stronger, because the weak players in their space are flushed out and they gain market share.

Invest in the 800-pound gorilla! Here are some of my favorites:

Procter & Gamble Co. (PG)
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT)
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM)
The Coca-Cola Company (KO)

Keep in mind that the current rally could run out of steam and we could experience a major market pullback in the near term. Therefore, you may not want to take a full position in these stocks right now. Take a position over time by buying in small lots. Or wait for a market pullback to get a better entry price. These are some of the highest quality stocks around, but they are not immune to a market sell-off.

[Ed. Note: Ted Peroulakis is just one of the expert analysts at Investor's Daily Edge, ETR's sister publication. Learn more about IDE today.

You can meet IDE's financial experts - along with other top names in the industry - in person next week. Find out more here.]

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A common saying on Wall Street is “Sell in May and Go Away” – meaning May’s a good time to sell your stocks and take a vacation from trading because the stock market is going to drop in the summer months.

Is this based on fact? Or is it some kind of myth?

Long-term statistics reveal that most market down periods do, indeed, occur over the six months from May to October. I crunched the numbers back to 1950, and it appears that the old adage holds water.

According to my calculations, if, for example, you’d invested $10,000 into the S&P 500 in 2008 with a strict “sell on May 1, buy on October 31″ strategy, you’d have had more than $500,000 on May 1 of 2009. If you’d just bought and held the S&P 500 during that same period, you’d have wound up with less than $80,000.

So “Sell in May and Go Away” has a history of success. It also has some other factors working in its favor: the so-called Santa Claus rallies that typically boost November, December, and January performance due to holiday spending, as well as the market boost in April due to optimism about upcoming first-quarter earnings reports.

But past performance is not indicative of future returns, and this strategy does not work every year. Plus, there are negatives. You pay a higher capital gains tax rate on stocks you hold for less than a year, and you pay more in commissions than you do with simple buy-and-hold investing.

[Ed. Note: Ted Peroulakis keeps a close eye on breaking investment opportunities as an analyst with Investor's Daily Edge, ETR's sister publication. Find out more about IDE here.

You can meet IDE's financial experts - along with other top names in the industry - in person this June. Find out more here.]

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Conventional buy-and-hold stock investing is not working in today’s market. Trading E-Minis is a great alternative, because you can take full advantage of the market’s volatility.

You can easily make money in a market that is going up or down. You can, for example, make a bundle if you go “long” or buy an E-Mini contract and the market goes up. And if you go “short” or sell an E-Mini contract, you can just as easily make money when the market goes down. This adds an entirely new dimension of opportunity for investors.

An E-Mini is an electronically traded futures contract on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) that represents a smaller version of a standard futures contract. E-Mini contracts are available on the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, S&P MidCap 400, and Russell 2000 indices. One example: The E-Mini S&P 500 futures contract is one-fifth the size of the standard S&P 500 futures contract.

E-Minis have a low margin requirement, which makes trading them easy and affordable. You can get started for as little as $500 per contract. And because standard stock and index options currently have high premiums due to market volatility, your leverage and profit potential is higher with E-Minis.

E-Minis allow investors with small amounts of risk capital to participate in the Dow and S&P 500 at a fraction of the cost of purchasing the actual stocks outright. You would have to pay thousands of dollars in commissions alone to buy all the stocks in the S&P 500, for example. But by buying an E-Mini S&P 500 futures contract, you can participate in all those stocks for a commission of less than $10!

Bottom line: Start trading E-Minis if you’re looking for an exciting, highly versatile, efficient, and economical way to capitalize on the daily swings in the stock market.
[Ed. Note: Ted Peroulakis is a writer and analyst with Investor's Daily Edge (IDE), ETR's sister publication. Find out more today.

The best way to learn the ins and outs of trading (and making huge gains with) E-Minis is with the Velocity Strategy, developed by IDE editor Rick Pendergraft. Using this simple strategy, he was able to make 99.15 percent gains in 2008. Learn more here.]

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Although the markets of the BRIC countries  (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) have crashed along with those of the rest of the world, these countries have tremendous growth potential – which could mean investment opportunities for you.  

Their growth potential is due to several factors, including abundant natural resources, low labor and production costs, and increasing foreign trade.

I gave you an overview of Brazil and Russia yesterday. Today, let’s look at India and China.

India has great long-term potential due to its stable economy and position as a low-cost producer of manufactured goods. And consumer demand is exploding as India’s standard of living increases. Because so many people in India speak English, many companies from English-speaking countries have sales and service operations in India. And India’s highly skilled and educated workforce has led to a strong software development industry. 

The best way to play India: PowerShares India (PIN). This exchange-traded fund holds a nice basket of Indian stocks and seeks to mirror the Indian stock market as measured by the Indus India index. 

Although China still has a communist dictatorship, the country is open to free trade and capitalism. China is the main outsourcing location for manufacturing today. Labor is still very cheap, and logistics between China and the U.S. are very good. It will remain the top low-cost producer of manufactured goods for years to come. Furthermore, with the Chinese enjoying a higher disposable income, domestic consumption is exploding. As a result, retail sales are hitting record highs. 

The best way to play China: iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (FXI). This exchange-traded fund holds a nice basket of Chinese stocks and seeks to mirror the Chinese stock market as measured by the FTSE/Xinhua China 25 index. 

[Ed. Note: Investment expert Ted Peroulakis and 8 of his fellow moneymakers will be gathering in Miami this June to share exactly how you can use their top recommendations to make a fortune in today's market. Get all the details here.]

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BRIC is an acronym for the combined economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. These developing countries have seen their stock markets plummet along with those of the rest of the world, but now is a great time to invest in them. Their stocks are oversold and they still have high growth potential. Plus, BRICs typically have lower labor and production costs, so companies in other countries are looking into the opportunities they offer for foreign expansion and trade. 

Today, let’s look at Brazil and Russia, which are destined to become the world’s leading producers of raw materials.

In the past, Brazil had high inflation, but the economic climate has been quite stable under President Lula da Silva. And the land is rich with natural resources. The ethanol industry, in particular, is very strong and growing. The world is seeking alternative sources for traditional fuels, and Brazil is well positioned to take full advantage of this. 

The best way to play Brazil: iShares MSCI Brazil Index (EWZ). This exchange-traded fund holds a nice basket of Brazilian stocks and seeks to mirror the Brazilian stock market as measured by the MSCI Brazil index. 

Russia has some big negatives – with political issues and organized crime among the main concerns. And investors don’t like the idea of investing in companies that could be nationalized overnight. But Russia’s energy sector is still a powerful force in the world, and its cheap assets are quite attractive. Russia is one of the largest producers of palladium, platinum, diamonds, nickel, and gold, making it a natural resources powerhouse that should do well as commodity prices recover. 

The best way to play Russia: Market Vectors Russia ETF (RSX). This exchange-traded fund holds a nice basket of Russian stocks and seeks to mirror the Russian stock market as measured by the DAX Global Russia+ Index.

[Ed. Note: Investment expert Ted Peroulakis and 8 of his fellow moneymakers will be gathering in Miami this June to share exactly how you can use their top recommendations to make a fortune in today's market. Get all the details here.]

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Agricultural products, including corn, wheat, and soybeans, are absolute necessities for human existence. And with the world’s population quickly increasing, demand for these commodities will skyrocket… and push prices much higher. 

That’s one good reason to invest in agriculture. 

In addition, as oil prices head higher bio-fuels will increasingly be used as an alternative energy source – which, in turn, will boost the demand for agricultural products (especially corn). 

Furthermore, investing in agriculture is a great hedge against inflation – and it looks like inflation is coming. Elevated inflation drives the prices of agricultural products higher – and, let’s face it, people are always going to need to eat, no matter how bad things get with the economy.

My favorite way to invest in agriculture is with the PowerShares DB Agriculture (DBA). This exchange traded fund (ETF) tracks widely traded agricultural commodities. As the prices of those products rise, the price of the ETF goes up. 

[Ed. Note: Investment expert Ted Peroulakis and 8 of his fellow moneymakers will be gathering in Miami this June to share exactly how you can use their top recommendations to make a fortune in today's market. Get all the details here.

Interested in other "against-the-grain" investments? Try ETR's program for profiting from the ongoing foreclosure "boom." No fix-and-flip involved.]

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As a result of expenditures for economic relief programs and government bailout programs aimed at getting us out of this recession, the U.S. budget deficit for fiscal 2009 is already close to $1 trillion, the biggest in history. In fiscal 2008, the deficit was a record $455 billion, and this year’s could be four times higher, possibly hitting $1.8 trillion.

And that’s not all. The recession took a bite out of tax revenues and put millions of people out of work. Higher jobless benefit claims are pushing government expenses higher. In addition, defense spending is elevated and Social Security costs are growing.

If an individual consistently spends more money than he takes in, he will eventually go bankrupt. But the U.S. government will never go bankrupt because it can just print up new money whenever needed to meet its debt obligations.

A projected deficit of $1.8 trillion this year and a current national debt of over $11 trillion could lead to a big spike in inflation. So make sure you protect your wealth and purchasing power. Invest in hard assets like gold, silver, copper, land, and oil.

[Ed. Note: Ted Peroulakis keeps a close eye on the markets and government efforts to keep this recession at bay in Investor's Daily Edge, ETR's sister publication.

You can meet IDE's financial experts - along with other top names in the industry - in person this June. Find out more here.]

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Real estate prices are down substantially, and many foreclosures and short sale opportunities are out there for the picking. We are certainly in a buyer’s market.

But is this the time to buy? Or will prices head even lower?

The millions of foreclosures coming on the market are driving prices down, but this could come to a head in the near term. And many experts think we could see the bottom some time this year. My suggestion: Keep your powder dry and get ready to jump into some real estate investments in the next year – when the right ones present themselves.

After getting out with a net profit in 2006, my wife and I are looking to add real estate to our investment mix again. We have been spending our weekends driving around, looking at properties that are bank-owned or are being short-sold by homeowners who are upside-down on their mortgages.

The trick is to find nice properties that you can rent out. That way, your property is working for you, generating steady income. When you find a place that’s got all the right criteria – good location, good or up-and-coming neighborhood, in good shape – make an offer that’s 40 percent to 50 percent below the current market value. Nineteen out of 20 owners will tell you to go somewhere else. But if one out of 20 accepts your lowball offer, you will get a great deal.

[Ed. Note: Interested in other "Great Recession" investment opportunities? Ted Peroulakis and his fellow market analysts at Investor's Daily Edge give you a daily dose of balanced commentary and incredible under-the-radar investments. Sign up for their free newsletter here.

Buying foreclosures is one way to make money in this market. Another way is to play the middleman between distressed homeowners and foreclosure investors. Find out more about this "recession-proof" cash generator and 13 other moneymaking opportunities here. /]

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I told my readers to short oil when it was at $120 per barrel on April 23, 2008. I was a little early to the party, but oil did drop below $33 a barrel in December of 2008. Now, I think oil has bottomed and is about to head higher.

Here are just a few reasons why I think the time has come to consider investing in oil again:

• There are many potential geopolitical flashpoints around the world that could flare up at any moment and disrupt oil supply.

• Americans have forgotten about past high gas prices and are back to buying SUVs and forgoing the carpool.

• Crude oil prices held up in the face of the recent 12-year lows in the stock market. This is very bullish for oil.

• Most of the world’s cheap oil has already been discovered, and oil exploration companies are drilling in places that are harder to reach. This adds to their costs and results in higher oil prices.

• Soon we could see demand increase to a level that will start to exceed supply. Demand will grow in the years ahead as India and China continue to modernize.

While oil inventories are high right now, they may start to decline toward the end of the year. I suggest you start looking at investing in oil over the next few months and use big down days as buying opportunities.

If you invest in oil, keep an eye on the economy. If the current slowdown gets worse and lasts longer than expected, it could have a negative effect on oil prices. Currently, my technical indicators are pointing to higher oil prices in the near term.

[Ed. Note: Ted Peroulakis has over 14 years of experience in the financial industry and is a top options trader and financial analyst. You can read more of Ted's advice on the most profitable investments in Investor's Daily Edge. Sign up for free here.

Oil isn't the only investment you can profit from in 2009. This June, 9 investment experts will show you exactly how you can make a fortune in today's market. Find out how you can get their top recommendations for making 2009 the best year ever for your portfolio right here.]

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Well folks, it looks like the inflation genie is out of the bottle. All these economic stimulus packages and bailouts will have to be paid back eventually.

Where is all the money going to come from?

Investors around the world are still standing in line to buy our short-term government securities. But China’s exports have plummeted, so they no longer have money to lend us. And oil prices have dropped sharply, so OPEC doesn’t have as much to lend us.

What happens if the world stops supporting our lavish spending habits? We will have to print more paper money to meet our crushing debt obligations. Not only could that scare investors out of the dollar and into the euro or Japanese yen… it will result in a huge jump in inflation.

So how you can profit from inflation? You can own an asset whose purchasing power has outlasted governments and civilizations for more than 5,000 years: Gold.

Gold is the best performing asset class this decade. Since 2000, gold is up more than 200 percent, and it looks like it will keep going.

Inflation decreases the value of the U.S. dollar. As the dollar goes down, the value of gold tends to go up, because gold is priced in dollars. That’s why you should be a gold bug.

[Ed. Note: Ted Peroulakis has over 14 years of experience in the financial industry and is a top options trader and financial analyst.

Gold isn't the only investment you can profit from in 2009. By learning about Internet business, real estate trends, and "safe" stock investing from the best in their fields, you can invest in yourself and your future. Find out how to get your hands on the SAFEST and most PROFITABLE income-generating and entrepreneurial opportunities you've never heard of right here.]

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