Paradigm Shift

Unrealistic Return - No sense of return/risk, and try to earn 30% plus a year.

Benchmarking - Try to make better return than the broad market index.

Absolute Return - Try to earn absolute return rather than the fluctuated index return.

Target Return - Set a floating target return and adjust the target according to the economic conditions.

Target Cash Flow - Focus on the positive monthly cash flow rather than on the annual return.

Inverse/Leveraged Funds

Go to the following sites...
ProFunds
ProShares
RydexInvestments

You can see how they setup the funds in their annual reports.

Inverse Funds:
- Fixed Income: Repo + Bonds
- Inverse: Futures(Short) + Swap(Short Equity Index)
- Hedge: Options(Buy Call)

Leveraged Funds:
- Fixed Income: Repo + Bonds
- Leverage: Equity(Long) + Futures(Long) + Swap(Long Equity Index)
- Hedge: Options(Buy Put)

Commodity ETN, ETF

iPath offers GSCI(GSP), Dow Jones-AIG(DJP), and Glodman Sacs Crude Oil(OIL)...
iShares offers GSCI(GSG), Gold(IAU), Silver(SLV)...

Information in Option Volume

MIT LFE Working Paper by Pan, J. and A. Poteshman, 2003

...Performing daily crosssectional analyses from 1990 to 2001, we find that buying stocks with low put/call ratios and selling stocks with high put/call ratios generates an expected return of 40 basis points per day and 1 percent per week. ...In contrast to the equity options market, we do not find any evidence of informed trading in the index options market.

Market Valuation & Commentary

S&P US Index
Morning Star

Merrill Lynch
Raymond James Financial