This from InvestmentU:

Structured products are securities that are sold as an opportunity to enjoy substantial gains with full principal protection.

For example, an underwriter might offer investors the upside potential of the S&P 500 – or a substantial percentage of that upside – over a certain period of time (say, five years) while guaranteeing no less than full value of the initial investment at maturity, even if the index goes down.

(Or, instead of the S&P 500, the investment might be linked to Asian currencies, or commodities, or something else.)

How can you offer all or most of the upside of a risky investment with a principal guarantee? Well, in the early days, Wall Street would take U.S. government zero coupon bonds – which sell at a discount and pay zero interest, but gradually compound in value until they mature at $1,000 – and combine them with index options.

So, for instance, if you invested $100,000 – and investors tended to bet large since their principal was guaranteed by Uncle Sam – $80,000 might go into zero coupon bonds and most of the rest into S&P 500 call options.

Most of the rest? Well, there were Wall Street fees that had to be covered, of course.

Nothing was wrong with these early investments, really. But they were nothing more than a gimmick. You could buy the zero coupon bonds and options yourself and achieve the same thing, saving yourself the fees that Wall Street imposed when it created these products.

Unfortunately, something happened along the way that changed the game completely. Yields on government bonds came down. And the cost of buying index options went up, especially in bull markets.

Yields on U.S. Treasuries just weren’t high enough to make this game work anymore. So instead of investing most of the money in U.S. government bonds, Wall Street firms substituted their own unsecured debt instead. This was disclosed in the prospectus, of course. And it seemed like no big deal as long as these Wall Street giants remained healthy.

But they didn’t.

Structured Products Are An Investor’s Nightmare

Investors who bought structured products from Lehman Brothers, for example, are today standing in line alongside the firm’s other creditors.

These “principal-guaranteed” securities are now selling for 10 cents on the dollar, according to SecondMarket, Inc., a specialist in illiquid assets.

SecondMarket says it has already heard from investors holding more than $2 billion worth of Lehman structured products.

The firm estimates that small investors bought $34 billion of these products through October of this year alone. This surpasses the more than $33.5 billion that were bought last year.

(In truth, of course, these products are sold, not bought. No one wakes up and says “I think I’ll invest in a structured investment product today.”)

Last week The Wall Street Journal told the story of Charles Brooks, a physician in Allentown, PA:

• He put a significant sum in two Lehman structured products because he liked the idea of having some exposure to market gains along with protection from losses.
• Today he says these “protected” assets are worth approximately seven cents on the dollar. Sixty-five years old, he is now delaying his retirement planning.
• And he is angry at Wall Street. “There’s no end to things they can invent that seem to me little more than a gamble for the enjoyment of the inventors,” he says.

I don’t fault Dr. Brooks for believing that a note guaranteed by Lehman Brothers was pretty safe. Ninety-nine percent of investors would have made the same assumption 12 months ago.

Structured Products Are A Wall Street Gimmick

The shame, really, is that by buying these structured products, he was sold a Wall Street gimmick. There is nothing magical about these products that offer huge upside potential with a principal guarantee.

After all, I could take $100,000 from you, put the vast majority of it in U.S. government zero coupon bonds and use the balance to play roulette at the Bellagio for five years. If I win, you would get back a lot more than $100,000.

And if I lost everything, which of course I would, I could still guarantee the full return of your hundred grand when bonds mature.

Like I said, gimmick.

There are two lessons here for every investor:

The first is as old as investing itself: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Number two, however, is just as important. Whenever you hear that an investment, an insurance policy, an interest payment, a stock dividend, or a particular return is guaranteed, be sure to ask the next question: By whom?

Source: Structured Products: Another “Safe Investment” Bites the Dust

This from Money Morning:

It used to be that buying a stock was like buying a house. You’d find a house that looked super from the street – and inspect it carefully, before committing to a deal.

But what if you couldn’t get inside? Or even worse, what if the property changed after you carefully inspected it, so that you ended up buying a house with a trashed interior, or a crumbling foundation that made the house risky to live in, and virtually worthless to sell? Or what if a new regulation made the house you spent so much for – and had saved so long for – obsolete overnight, so that you were left with nothing to show for the years of saving and investing, possibly even forcing you and your spouse to forgo your long-dreamed-of retirement? Instead, you both have to keep working.

That’s a lot like what we’re seeing in the U.S. stock market right now.

If the “house” I referred to is an analogy for the stock market, we’re all having to watch as government regulations, elected lawmakers, credit providers, rating agencies and others all work to change the way business is conducted – in many cases, changing the game after consumers (investors) spend all their hard-earned savings for that house (major stock or mutual fund purchase).

If that’s truly the case, it’s understandable if most U.S. investors are left feeling burned – or even worse, helpless – to the point that they’ve decided it’s better to just sit on the sidelines. After all, why participate in a game in which there’s no way to win?

But what if you knew, ahead of time, what marketplace changes to expect? Then you’d be in the driver’s seat – right? You’d know what to anticipate, could craft a profit strategy to follow, and then could just sit back, watching and waiting for the events you’ve already positioned yourself to profit from.

Investment expertR. Shah Gilani – a retired hedge fund manager who’s been chronicling the credit crisis as a Money Morning contributing editor – thinks it’s possible to peer into the future and see the changes that are looming. Gilani, the editor of a new trading service called the Trigger Event Strategist, is predicting a series of so-called “aftershocks” from the financial crisis that investors need to watch for.

These “trigger events” are seismic occurrences that will cause major aftershocks. And the fallout from those aftershocks will bring about marketplace changes that, properly played, will not only help investors dodge unnecessary additional losses – this fallout can actually be exploited for profit, Gilani says.

“It’s like having a meteor hit the earth,” Gilani says. “Because of the seismic-level events that will result from the aftershocks of this meteor strike, there will be all sorts of other trigger events” that will translate into profit opportunities, if properly played.

Some of these will involve going long – that is, actually buying the stock, option or security that’s likely to benefit the most from the trigger event. But this strategy can also involve short selling – identifying the company, stock, fund or security that’s going to be punished the most, and profiting on that decline.

In this story, we’re going to take a look at five key aftershocks investors can look for. These are by no means the only ones Gilani is predicting: But they are five of the most dramatic, and are among the most important ones investors need to be able to understand and interpret. They are:

• The collapse of the investment banks.
• New government regulations.
• The implosion of the commercial real estate sector.
• The transformation – and consolidation – of the insurance industry.
• And the overseas fallout that will force the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to intercede.

Let’s consider each “aftershock” in a little more detail.

• The collapse of the investment-banking sector: Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEHMQ) has filed for bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MER) will become part of Bank of American Corp. (NYSE:BAC) – guaranteeing itself a dependable source of capital, via bank deposits, but also putting itself under much closer regulatory scrutiny. As a Money Morning investigative report showed, banks are using bailout money to buy other banks, or investment banks, creating some real behemoths.

Investment banks used short-term borrowings, and a lot of leverage, to operate what was an “extraordinarily profitable business,” whose services were needed, Gilani said. Indeed, the need remains and the model wasn’t completely bad – it was the extraordinary use of leverage, combined with some questionable “financial engineering,” that caused the sector to go off the tracks.

“Even now, if you could go back in time and buy Goldman Sachs (GS) at its IPO, would you do it? Of course you would. It’s an extraordinarily profitable business model,” he said. “Not long after this cycle returns, and the [investment banking] players come back onto the field, [you’ll be able to] invest in Citi (C), or you can invest in Wells Fargo (WFC) … but why don’t you come back and redo the old Goldman Sachs model? After all, you remember how profitable it was for such a long time.”

Gilani’s projection: Scrutiny and oversight will increase in the near term, and for some time to come. Look for private equity firms – and hedge funds – to step in as the new providers of the capital dealmakers need to provide needed investment banking services. And don’t be surprised – eventually – to see banks spin out their investment banking arms into standalone units that are better able to maneuver and capitalize on the available marketplace opportunities.

2. New government regulations: The United States must remake itself to once again become the kind of financial market where there’s the right mix of free-market capitalism and nurturing/limiting government regulation – for that’s what created a strong global confidence in the U.S. financial system. Right now, that confidence has been lost, meaning the all-important process of “capital formation” could go elsewhere – to Shanghai, Dubai or London. That would be devastating to any possible U.S. economic rebound, given that financial services is a crucial piece of the country’s $14 trillion economy, and the fact that the sector employs an estimated 6.6 million people.

Gilani’s projection: As this unfolds, there will be opportunities for profit via something he calls “regulatory arbitrage.” But it’s still very early in the game here. Look for a separate Money Morning report on this “aftershock” within the next week.

3. The implosion of the commercial real estate market: Citigroup is cutting 50,000 jobs, Lehman Brothers is in bankruptcy, and consolidations in the financial-services sector are escalating. The bottom line is that these are all possible trigger events leading into the collapse of the commercial real estate sector. This will be “much more problematic than the implosion of the housing sector, as commercial real estate is much harder to move,” Gilani says. “And some of the most expensive real estate anywhere is in the financial-services sector.” Job losses will translate into still more trouble in the commercial slice of the residential real estate market – as expensive apartment buildings and condominiums remain vacant, and unrented. Consumer confidence is shaky, so consumers aren’t spending. That means that retailing is also suffering badly, some chains are closing locations, and some – such as Circuit City Stores Inc. (CCTYQ) –- are even turning to bankruptcy. That’ll leave open spaces in untold numbers of malls and shopping centers

Gilani’s projection:  “We’ll hear a very loud ‘thump’ when this other [credit crisis] shoe falls,” and it won’t be good for the overall economy’s health, he said. But even a seemingly negative aftershock such as this one provides potential profit opportunities.

4. The consolidation of the insurance sector: The collapse of American International Group Inc. (AIG) was just the start of this story, not the end, as many investors believe. Some companies will be swallowed up by others, and some of those successful suitors may actually thrive, making them enticing profit plays. Indeed, with this aftershock, there will be profits to be made on the way down, and more when the rebound comes.

Gilani’s projection: The government can seize banks, allowing the weak ones to fail so long as it guarantees depositors’ money. But it’s a whole different story with an insurance carrier. “If your bank goes out of business, and your money is safe, all it means is that you might have to go elsewhere for a loan. And with fewer competitors, that loan might cost more,” Gilani says. “But if an insurance company goes under, and you don’t have the health insurance, disability insurance, or annuity that you’ve been paying on and counting on, well, that’s devastating.” So devastating, in fact, that the government can’t allow that to happen.

5. The mobilization of the International Monetary Fund (IMF): If there’s one decision that U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. wishes he could have back, it is the decision to allow Lehman to fail. It was a “line-in-the-sand, get-tough decision, and it was a huge mistake,” Gilani believes. With the inherent instability in today’s world – and the potential for terrorist regimes to gain power – the IMF won’t risk drawing a line in the sand with an at-risk country, he said. Instead, the IMF will employ a “good neighbor” strategy, and help all those it can. And that help will come in the form of major capital infusions – $100 million or more. This will stop any possible “contagion,” like the one that emanated from Asia in the late 1990s. And it will prevent some alluring profit plays, Gilani says.

Gilani’s projection: Some recipients will resent the get-tough policies that the IMF requires countries to put in place. But those policies are good, and actually make the country strong in the long run. Some of the countries he expects will be receiving this capital will make for excellent investments. Again, stay tuned.

Final thoughts: By watching for these “aftershocks,” Gilani says “the bottom line is that, as these events unfold, you’ll understand the ramifications – and you’ll have the chance to trade them ahead of the curve, often for significant gains.”

Source: The Five Financial Crisis “Aftershocks” Investors Can Play for Profit

Editors Note: The first installment in an ongoing occasional news series that looks at the anticipated “aftershocks” of the global financial crisis, in some cases even exploring possible profit opportunities.

This from Whiskey & Gunpowder:

There has never been a better time than right now to buy stocks. I know what you’re thinking — it sounds strange considering the enormous volatility in the market. But, I’m not talking about just any old stocks. I’m talking about stocks that produce real income.

In these manic times, you need to keep one important idea in mind when stock shopping: dividend yields. If there is one proven way to make money during any market condition, it is investing in companies that offer low, growing dividends. In fact, 97% of all gains in the S&P 500 over the last 80 years have come from reinvested dividends, according to one study.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Special~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Deficit Time Bomb

Well, Election Day has come and gone…and our deficits are still there…and growing…

Those deficits are going to wreak more havoc on the economy and individual savings than can be properly imagined.

We’re still offering solutions in our “Personal Bailout Bundle” and it’s still exclusive till Dec 21. Don’t miss out. Just click here to read more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you are sitting on a huge pile of cash in a nice big home that you own outright, go ahead and reinvest your dividends. But if you worry about your bills, dream about helping your kids out more, or just wish you could eat dinner out a few times a week, those dividends can be the best solution.

Take a step back and analyze the situation. When you invest in a dividend-paying stock, you have the option to put those payments back into more stock or cash those checks to boost your lifestyle.

But there is a third option that most don’t even know about…

DRIPing Money into Your Retirement Savings

Many dividend-paying companies offer Dividend Reinvestment Plans, or DRIPs. These plans allow you to “set it and forget it.” Just buy some shares, set up the plan, and let the company do all the hard work. If all things go well, your money — and your stake in the company — will increase and be waiting for you when you retire.

Most investors, however, have no idea that they are allowed to split their investment. Instead of putting all of your shares in the DRIP, you can actually allocate some to pay you via dividend checks and others reinvested. That gives you both the spending power of dividends now and a savings element to work for you until you need it.

Think it can’t get any better? Well, many companies make their DRIPs even more enticing.

Certain companies allow you to both receive dividend checks in the mail and buy more shares for a discount. If you are enrolled in these companies’ DRIPs, your dividends will actually buy you up to 10% more stock every payment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Special~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The End of Cheap Oil

You wouldn’t think so. After all, oil prices just plummeted…

But the fundamentals are clear as day. Oil is destined to get a lot more expensive.

It’s going to change life in the U.S. and the world…forever…but you can protect yourself and prosper… Click here to take advantage of oil’s temporarily lower prices.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Matched Gains Without Working a Day for the Company

Here’s how it works:

You want to invest in Company A. That company wants you to reinvest your dividends back into more shares. So, they offer — as a benefit for signing up for their DRIP — a market discount on every purchase. Company A will take your shares and sign you up for this plan. When the dividends come out, they’ll reinvest them by buying more shares for you at a 10% discount to the market price.

It’s as if the company was matching 10% of your investment just like an employer-based 401(k). Here’s the best part: Most companies will let you split your shares into half “pay now” and half “reinvest for later.” So you are collecting current income from half your dividends, while saving for your retirement through an employer-like “matched gains” program with the other half.

From your perspective, it’s exactly like working for the company without ever lifting a finger. You are basically treated as a long-term employee. Better yet, at the end of the day, you still own all of your shares. And shares of companies that offer consistent dividends and DRIPs typically increase in value over a few years. Even in this market.

And you can do this with as many different companies as you want.

There are already over 1,000 DRIPs, most of which allow you to split your shares, and a few hundred of these “matched gains” retirement plans. Many more are jumping on this bandwagon.

It benefits you by giving you current income as well as retirement savings, and it benefits them by stabilizing their share prices.

Who Cares What the Shares Cost?

Of course, you don’t have to do any of this. You can simply invest in a dividend payer and just take your paychecks for life. That’s fine. Either way, you’ll certainly ease your stresses and strains while the economy is floundering.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Special~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Get Gold Cheap… Before It Takes Off Again

Gold is giving you another chance to get in for the inevitable ride up at a bargain.

Here’s how to get it at a discount and multiply those gains.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Income investing gives you options like these that “buy low, sell high” strategies don’t. Perhaps most importantly, income investors benefit from a completely different outlook on the market. They are not worried about share prices. They don’t even mind when prices drop. It just allows them buy more stock.

The most important focus for these investors is the dividend. As long as a company pays its dividend, especially if it continues to grow, the investor is usually happy.

Investing like this is much easier than trying to time the market and worrying about the economy. It actually solves both problems. It gives you a two-pronged attack on today’s hectic market.

Source: The Best Secret Savings Account

This from The Smart Profits Report:

Believe me, there are times I’m sure the last thing you want to hear about is the stock market. Sometimes, that’s true for me, too! And I understand that with each day that your portfolio losses grow, that’s when panic and/or depression sets in. When I was a rookie investor, I felt that way, because I didn’t think there was anything I could do.

But take it from me: At times like this, you must avoid panicking at all costs.

The thing is, markets are not one-way streets. And although it’s tough to argue that fact when we’re in a midst of an extreme correction that can only be compared to a 100-year flood, events like this can happen and we simply have to deal with it.

So this is not the time for a pity party or complaining. Here’s why…

Picking Through The Rubble For Strength And Extreme Value

While the stock market looks like a tornado has whipped through it over the past few months, lurking in the rubble are companies trading at valuations we haven’t seen for decades.

What’s more, they’re good, solid companies. True survivors that will allow you to recoup your losses as the market bounces back. And while it’s important to note that this may take some time, if you don’t have a horse in the race, you have no chance of winning, or even placing.

So where does that leave investors like you and me? What’s the best way forward?

An Investor’s Best Friend

Over the past few months, one investment strategy has risen to the top of the pack.

In fact, people whom I never thought would embrace it are now raving about its benefits. But understand that this is a strategy for those who can look beyond the hype and promise of home run, triple-digit return promises and instead towards something that many investors crave right now: Steady, consistent income.

And it’s a strategy that has taught me that there are ways to benefit from volatile and even falling markets – perfect for the current climate.

I’m referring to covered call investing.

In a nutshell, the strategy has two parts…

1. You buy shares of a company.
2. You sell call options against your shares.

What does this accomplish? First, it allows you to reduce your basis in the share price by collecting a special “dividend” (known as a premium) from the proceeds of the options that you sold.

In a flat or range bound market, you can do this over and over again, consistently reducing your original cost and setting yourself up for big returns in the future. Here’s how it works…

The Breakdown Of A Covered Call Trade

Let’s say you like General Electric (NYSE: GE).

You buy shares of GE at the current price around $17.

Against this position you sell GE $20 call options that expire in January 2009.

What this means is that you’re obligated to sell your GE in January at $20 if – and only if – the share price is over $20 at the time. If not, you keep your GE shares and any proceeds you received for selling the option.

If GE closes below $20 at expiration in January, you can sell another option and collect more money and continue to lower your cost. The caveat here is that if GE closes above $20, you still only get $20. The loss of the upside is the price you pay for the safety of lowering your downside.

The money you receive for selling the option(s) is called the premium. For example, if GE January $20 options are trading for $1, you will receive $1 for each share that you own and have sold an option against it.

Remember, options trade in contracts, with each contract equal to 100 shares. So if you own 100 shares of GE, you can sell one call option contracts. At $1 per contract, you will receive $100 – 1 contract x 100 shares per contract x $1.

So let’s say you sell just one call option against your 100 shares. With the $1 premium, your cost in GE is now $16 and your upside is $4 – the difference between the strike price and your cost. The extra dollar you picked up is like an extra 6% dividend ($1 divided by $16 (your cost).

But I like to put my own twist on this. It’s not exactly the conventional way of covered call investing – but it’s a big reason why my Strategic Income service has managed to notch up a 70% win rate over the past 11 years. Here’s what I do…

An Even Better Way To Trade Covered Calls

Instead of selling a call option above the price at which you buy the underlying shares, you sell it below that price.

My rationale is this: We’re essentially saying to the market that we want to own GE shares… but we want to own them at a lower price. Our price. Here’s how it works.

~ We buy GE at $17

~ We then sell the January 2009 $15 calls against the position.

For doing so, we’ll automatically get $2 back – known as the “intrinsic value” ($17 minus $15.) But we’ll get more.

For time and risk, we’ll pick up an extra $1 to make the total premium $3 ($2 intrinsic plus $1 for time and risk). That lowers our original cost in GE to $14.

So we stand to make $1 profit on the trade, as long as GE closes above $15 in January. If this happens, our return is about 7% in a couple of months – a full $2 below the current price.

You see how this works? We’re not betting that the shares are going higher… we’re actually saying that if they go nowhere or even lower, we still stand to make money as long as the shares are above our cost of $14 ($17 purchase price minus $3 premium received).

Three Chances To Win In A Market Like This? I’ll Take It!

The bottom line here is that we have three chances to win…

1. If GE shares rise, we win.
2. If GE remains flat, we win.
3. If GE shares fall – but not under $14 – we win.

I don’t know about you, but I like those odds – especially in a market like this.

But what happens if GE slides under $14?

Well, since our cost was lower than the $17 we paid for the shares, there is an excellent chance that we’ll be able to sell more options and reduce our cost even further, while increasing our upside potential.

Source: The Best Investment Strategy For A Market Like This… The Truth About Covered Call Investing

This from the Sovereign Society:

Since August 2007, the market has logged four bear market rallies and all of them ended badly.

From its lows earlier in October the S&P 500 Index has gained 5% and the Dow is up about 3%. The MSCI World Index has gained less than 1% from those same lows, constricted in great part by a surging American dollar.

But are stocks really cheap?

Global equities are now trading at their lowest trailing price-to-earnings multiple since the 1970s at just 10.3 times earnings. The majority of global markets have been mauled lately and virtually all of them sell at less than 12 times earnings and some below ten. Europe, the Pacific and Latin America all trade at compelling levels.

Yet U.S. stocks don’t necessarily appear that cheap when compared to international equities or when priced in relation to their 12-month earnings and dividend payments.

The S&P 500 Index trades at 21.3 times trailing 12-month earnings and yields 3.2% in dividends.

According to Wigmore (data from 1985), U.S. stocks peaked in 1929 trading at 30 times earnings and harboring a 3% dividend yield. But by 1932, U.S. equities traded at just 10 times earnings and yielded a fat 12.5% dividend yield.

Stocks thereafter embarked on a big rally of 67% in 1933 and another 38% in 1935. This followed the incredibly painful crash from October 1929 until late 1932 when the Dow collapsed a cumulative 87%.

Historical data therefore suggests that U.S. stocks are still not huge bargains. It also suggests that we’re still in the throes of a bear market rally.

But as the credit crisis continues to relax, the damage has already largely been done to the real economy. Credit is still hard to secure, consumers aren’t spending, retail sales are grim and layoffs are now widespread. Mortgage rates remain elevated. Consumers will eventually start saving again, and that is only bearish for corporate earnings. If consumers save, they don’t spend.

We’re now transitioning from one crisis to another, or going from the tail-end of a credit squeeze to a deep global recession that affects broad consumption. I highly doubt the market has discounted all the bad news. I also find it hard to believe that the Panic of 2008 and its horrific trail of damage, namely the destruction of wealth, will keep the market above water for very long. The Dow will at least re-test its 2002 levels at 7,200. Stay defensive.

Source: S&P 500 Still Not Cheap

More from Money Morning:

A properly structured and globally diversified portfolio using the 50-40-10 allocation model (50% “base-builder” foundation investments, 40% global growth and income plays and 10% “rocket rider” speculative investments that will perform well in a recovery) we recommend in The Money Map Report – our affiliated monthly investing newsletter – will prove to be an investor’s best friend. And the reasons for that are as simple as they are compelling:

• First, a properly structured portfolio has built in safety brakes that keep us from making overly risky decisions.
• And second, while this allocation model was constructed to minimize our downside in markets such as the one we’re navigating right now, it also positions us to benefit when the rebound eventually gets under way.

During the past year, we’ve repeatedly urged our readers to make sure two other elements are part of their portfolio: Dividend-paying stocks and specialized “inverse funds” that gain when the markets decline.

While dividends are important in any market, they’re downright crucial now because they add to returns during market rallies and help offset losses during market declines. And our commitment to inverse funds was rewarded during the whipsaw month of October: During a month in which the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 16.8%, the Nasdaq Composite Index shed 16.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 13.9%, all 10 of the best-performing exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were inverse funds, which boasted one-month returns ranging from 36.4% to 66.6%, Thestreet.com reported last week.

Now those are admittedly highly remarkable returns – and clearly aren’t the norm. But it does demonstrate the point we’ve been making: It pays to protect y our downside even as you position yourself for gains. And not only do such investments as inverse funds hedge our downside, they smooth out our overall portfolio volatility and help calm roiled waters.

Source: Unprecedented Volatility Will Continue to Rock the Stock Market in Advance of a Possible Rebound in Mid-2009